Principles of Environmental Physics
Plants, Animals, and the Atmosphere

Principles of Environmental Physics provides a basis for understanding the complex physical interactions of plants and animals with their natural environment.

John Monteith (Author), Mike Unsworth (Author)

9780123869104, Elsevier Science

Hardback, published 16 August 2013

422 pages, Illustrated
22.9 x 15.1 x 2.7 cm, 0.82 kg

"This compact overview of environmental physics…serves as an excellent introduction to the subject. Its pioneering approach to the application of physics to the study and analysis of biological processes is still unsurpassed...The range of subjects covered is wide…and the new edition reorganizes and updates core material and improves on presentation...Rigorous but accessible, this is a wonderful text, and contains an extensive bibliography and a list of references."--ProtoView.com, January 2014

Principles of Environmental Physics: Plants, Animals, and the Atmosphere, 4e, provides a basis for understanding the complex physical interactions of plants and animals with their natural environment. It is the essential reference to provide environmental and ecological scientists and researchers with the physical principles, analytic tools, and data analysis methods they need to solve problems. This book describes the principles by which radiative energy reaches the earth’s surface and reviews the latest knowledge concerning the surface radiation budget. The processes of radiation, convection, conduction, evaporation, and carbon dioxide exchange are analyzed. Many applications of environmental physics principles are reviewed, including the roles of surface albedo and atmospheric aerosols in modifying microclimate and climate, remote sensing of vegetation properties, wind forces on trees and crops, dispersion of pathogens and aerosols, controls of evaporation from vegetation and soil (including implications of changing weather and climate), and interpretation of micrometeorological measurements of carbon dioxide and other trace gas fluxes.

1. The Scope of Environmental Physics2. Properties of Gases and Liquids3. Transport of Heat, Mass, and Momentum4. Transport of Radiant Energy5. Radiation Environment6. Microclimatology of Radiation (i) Radiative Properties of Natural Materials7. Microclimatology of Radiation (ii) Radiation Interception by Solid Structures8. Microclimatology of radiation (iii) Interception by Plant Canopies and Animal Coats9. Momentum Transfer10. Heat Transfer11. Mass Transfer (i) Gases and Water Vapor12. Mass Transfer (ii) Particles13. Steady State Heat Balance (i) Water Surfaces, Soil and Vegetation14. Steady State Heat Balance (ii) Animals15. Transient Heat Balance16. Micrometeorology (i) Turbulent Transfer, Profiles and Fluxes17. Micrometeorology (ii) Interpretation of Flux Measurements

Subject Areas: Applied ecology [RNC], Ecological science, the Biosphere [PSAF], Biophysics [PHVN], Physics [PH]