Encyclopedia of world climatology /

This revised encyclopedia updates and expands the classic Encyclopedia of Climatology (1987). More than 200 signed entries from 150 expert contributors are included. Changes reflect developments in the field of climatology over the last 20 years. The major change from the earlier work is the transfer of the majority of the entries on paleoclimatology to the forthcoming companion volume, Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments (due August 2006). Increased information about and interest in older climates warrants this new encyclopedia and allows the editors to include additional entries on general climatological topics. The highly informative and well-written entries cover all main disciplines of climatology, provide climate information for major continental areas, and describe the dynamics of climate. Short biographies of prominent climatologists are also included. Graphs, charts, and drawings appear where appropriate. The editors have also updated and expanded the "further reading" bibliographies that accompany each entry. Author and subject indexes are provided, and the entries are extensively cross-referenced. Given the importance of the study of world climates, this is an indispensable reference for all libraries. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. All levels. J. C. Stachacz Indiana University Kokomo

Editor Oliver (physical geography, emeritus, Indiana State Univ.; Climatology: An Atmospheric Science) and 150 international contributors have revised and updated the Encyclopedia of Climatology (1986). Some material on past climates is gone, slated instead to appear in the forthcoming Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments, another volume in the "Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences" series. Other substantive entries, including "Hurricanes" and "Nuclear Winter," have been dropped as well. Nonetheless, this work includes 229 articles, 16 more than the original, and covers climatological developments of the past 20 years. A few additions are definitions of terms or brief biographies of climatologists, but many reflect a new focus on the impact of climate on human activity. These include the articles "Climatic Change and Ancient Civilizations," "Military Affairs and Climate," and "Seasonal Affective Disorder." Other new articles range from "Blizzard Climatology" to "Rainforest Climates." All illustrations are black and white, which renders some reproduced figures less useful or appealing than the color originals (the figures in "Art and Climate" are of particularly poor quality). The A-Z entries, ranging from a quarter of a page to 17 pages in length, are selectively cross-referenced, and bibliographies follow even the briefest articles. The writing varies: one author defines the common scientific term pH, while another uses orographic repeatedly with no explanation. There are a number of minor editing errors, as well as some apparent problems with the printing of umlauts and accent marks. Indexes of authors cited and subjects complete the work. Bottom Line Scholarly encyclopedias covering weather and climate are few and far between. Considerably less expensive than Academic Press's six-volume Encyclopedia of Atmospheric Sciences, this is a useful update for libraries owning Oxford University Press's Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather. Recommended for academic, special, and large public libraries. [The online version of this series can be found at www.eseo.com.-Ed.]-Nancy R. Curtis, Univ. of Maine Lib., Orono (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.