The Surface Climates of Canada (Canadian Association of Geographers Series in Canadian Geography, 4) (Volume 4)

Climate, particularly physical and surface climate, plays an intimate role in landscape pattern and diversity in Canada. Focusing on climatic processes at and near the earth's surface and on how these processes interact with the natural and human-modified landscapes, The Surface Climates of Canada goes beyond mere descriptive climatology to reveal the interrelationship between Canada's surface and its climate.

In the opening chapters contributors lay out the large-scale context of the physical climate of Canada, introducing the processes, balances, and dynamic linkages between the surface and atmosphere that create and maintain the diversity of surface climates found in Canada as well as outlining the nature of the physical processes that operate near the ground's surface. Individual chapters are dedicated to snow and ice - the almost universal surface cover in Canada - and the other major natural surface environments of Canada: ocean and coastal zones, fresh water lakes, wetlands, arctic islands, low arctic and subarctic lands, forests, and alpine environments. The final part of the book considers those surface environments that have been strongly influenced by human activity, such as agricultural lands and urban environments, and examines the prospects for future climate change.

Bringing together for the first time a wide range of scholarship by leading climatologists, The Surface Climates of Canada will be an indispensable tool for understanding Canada's surface climates and the processes responsible for their creation and control.

Contributors include Brian D. Amiro (AECL), W.G. Bailey (Simon Fraser), Richard Bello (York), Terry J. Gillespie (Guelph), Barry E. Goodison (Atmospheric Environment Service), F. Kenneth Hare (emeritus professor, Toronto), L.D. Danny Harvey (Toronto), Owen Hertzman (Dalhousie), Peter M. Lafleur (Trent), J. Harry McCaughey (Queen's), Linda Mortsch (Environment Canada), R. Ted Munn (Toronto), D. Scott Munro (Toronto), Atsumu Ohmura (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Timothy R. Oke (UBC), John W. Pomeroy (Environment Canada), Alexander W. Robertson (Canadian Forest Service), Nigel T. Roulet (McGill), Wayne R. Rouse (McMaster), Ian R. Saunders (Simon Fraser), William M. Schertzer (Environment Canada), Hans-Peter Schmid (Indiana), David L. Spittlehouse (BC Ministry of Forests), Douw G. Steyn (UBC), John L. Walmsley (Atmospheric Environment Service), John D. Wilson (Alberta), Ming-Ko Woo (McMaster).

ISSN 1188-7796

Series editor: R. Cole Harris

The series addresses important topics in Canadian geography. Each volume, a closely edited collection of original contributions, deals with a major theme in Canadian geography, providing a state-of-the-art review by authors engaged in fundamental research in the areas chosen. The series includes work by both physical and human geographers and by specialists in related fields, permitting an interdisciplinary approach to the topics. Most authors are well known, but promising young scholars also present their ideas. At a time when Canada is redefining itself, the series as a whole contributes to our understanding of the context of the debate. The volumes are essential learning tools for undergraduate students, the general public, and, in some cases, senior high-school students. They also give non-Canadians - scholars and students of Canadian Studies in the United States and overseas - a vivid picture of the unity and diversity of Canada.