The Atmosphere, the Oceans, Climate, and Ecosystem Services

Abstract

Climate is perhaps most easily understood as the results of the atmosphere's and the oceans' combined efforts to redistribute heat from the Earth's equator to the poles. What happens at the atmosphere-ocean interface, therefore, is critical to climate, climate change, and the ecosystem services provided by every ecosystem on Earth.

This chapter has been submitted for inclusion in William H. Rodgers' forthcoming 'Climate Change Reader'. It reviews the basic processes of the atmosphere and the oceans, emphasizing their roles in climate regulation and other ecosystem services and paying particular attention to atmospheric-oceanic interactions. It concludes with a summary of how changes in these interactions both contribute to climate change effects and disrupt ecosystems and their services worldwide.

Keywords: climate change, global warming, ocean, atmosphere, ecosystem, ecosystem services, currents, thermohaline, greenhouse