Microbes: The Unseen Agents of Climate Change - Hardcover

Kirchman, David L.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 019768856X ISBN 13: 9780197688564

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2024

Synopsis

From heat waves and wildfires to flooding and record droughts, the impacts of climate change are now obvious. While the primary cause is the rise in greenhouse gases mainly from the burning of fossil fuels such as coal and petroleum, the complete story behind greenhouse gases also involves microbes and what they are doing in natural ecosystems. Although microbes contribute to the problem by producing greenhouse gases, climate change would be even more severe if not for other microbes that consume greenhouse gases. Understanding and solving the biggest environmental problem facing us today depends on the smallest organisms, microbes.

About this title

About the Author

David L. Kirchman was the Maxwell P. and Mildred H. Harrington Professor of Marine Studies at the University of Delaware until he retired in 2020 and was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography. Author of over 175 papers and two books, and editor of the "bible" of microbial oceanography (Microbial Ecology of the Oceans), Kirchman worked on the marine carbon cycle in regions around the world, from the Arctic to Antarctica. His findings were instrumental in showing the importance of bacteria and the rest of the microbial loop in the marine carbon cycle. He received a B.A. from Lawrence University and the Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2024
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 019768856X
• ISBN 13: 9780197688564
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 238