1 Introduction.- 1.1 From Thermometers to Satellites.- 1.2 The World Climate System.- 1.3 Climatic Change.- 1.4 Scales of Systems.- 2 Air.- 2.1 Solar Forcing.- 2.1.1 Cycles of Solar Activity.- 2.1.2 Solar Signals in the Atmosphere.- 2.1.3 Mechanisms of Short-Term Solar Forcing.- 2.1.4 Longer-Term Variations in Solar Activity.- 2.2 Short-Term Gravitational Forcing.- 2.2.1 Lunar Signals.- 2.2.2 Short-Term Orbital Forcing.- 2.2.3 Short-Term Changes in the Earth’s Spin Rate.- 2.3 Medium-Term Gravitational Forcing.- 2.3.1 Ellipticity, Precession, and Obliquity.- 2.3.2 Problems with the Croll-Milankovitch Theory.- 2.4 Internal Dynamics of the Climate System.- 2.4.1 Carbon Dioxide.- 2.4.2 Methane and Dust.- 2.5 Geophysical Forcing.- 2.5.1 Volcanoes.- 2.5.2 Vapour Plumes and Meteoritic Dust.- 2.5.3 Relief.- 2.5.4 The Arrangement of Land and Sea.- 2.5.5 Geothermal Energy.- 2.5.6 True Polar Wander.- 2.5.7 The Earth’s Rotation Rate.- 2.5.8 Large Changes of Obliquity.- 3 Ice and Water.- 3.1 Terrestrial Systems and the Water Cycle.- 3.1.1 Descriptive Approaches.- 3.1.2 Energetic Approaches.- 3.1.3 Hydrological Models.- 3.2 Short-Term Changes in the Hydrosphere.- 3.2.1 Droughts, Floods, and the Lunar Cycle.- 3.2.2 Volcanoes and the Cryosphere.- 3.3 Medium-Term Changes in the Hydrosphere.- 3.3.1 Monsoons.- 3.3.2 Soil Moisture.- 3.3.3 Lakes.- 3.3.4 Glacio-Eustatic Changes.- 3.4 Long-Term Changes in the Hydrosphere.- 3.4.1 Ancient Water Budgets.- 3.4.2 Ice Ages Through Earth History.- 4 Sediments.- 4.1 Weathering.- 4.1.1 Weathering and Climate.- 4.1.2 Weathering and Leaching Regimes.- 4.2 Denudation and Deposition.- 4.2.1 Mechanical Denudation.- 4.2.2 Chemical Denudation.- 4.2.3 Slope Processes.- 4.2.4 Regional and Global Patterns of Denudation.- 4.3 Short-Term Forcing of Denudation-Deposition Systems.- 4.3.1 Solar Signals in Sediments.- 4.3.2 Lunar Signals in Sediments.- 4.4 Medium-Term Forcing of Denudation-Deposition Systems.- 4.4.1 Terrestrial Deposits.- 4.4.2 Marine Deposits.- 4.4.3 Lake and Evaporite Deposits.- 4.5 Long-Term Changes in Sediments.- 4.5.1 Palaeoclimatic Significance of Palaeosols.- 4.5.2 Glacial Deposits in the Tropics.- 5 Landforms and Soils.- 5.1 Soils and Climate.- 5.1.1 The Climatic Factor in Soil Formation.- 5.1.2 Soil Types and Climate.- 5.1.3 Soil Processes and Climate.- 5.2 Landscape Morphometry and Climate.- 5.2.1 Morphoclimatic Regions.- 5.2.2 Morphometry and Climate.- 5.2.3 The Origin of Asymmetrical Valleys.- 5.3 Landforms and Soils During the Pleistogene Period.- 5.3.1 Soil-Landscape Change and Glacial-Interglacial Cycles.- 5.3.2 Soil Landscapes and Climatic Change During the Holocene Epoch.- 5.3.3 Modelling the Response of Hillslope Form to Climatic Change.- 5.4 Pre-Pleistogene Soil-Landscape History.- 6 Animals and Plants.- 6.1 Climatic Influences on Life.- 6.1.1 Plants.- 6.1.2 Animals.- 6.2 Biogeographical Regularities.- 6.2.1 Ecogeographical Rules.- 6.2.2 Climatic Interpretations of Ecogeographical Rules.- 6.2.3 Modern Studies of Bergmann’s Rule.- 6.3 Patterns of Species Richness and Climate.- 6.3.1 The Species-Energy Theory.- 6.3.2 Species Richness in North America.- 6.4 Short-Term Climatic Change and Organisms.- 6.4.1 Animals, Plants, and Solar Cycles.- 6.4.2 Animals, Plants, Volcanoes, and Meteorites.- 6.5 Medium-Term Climatic Change and Organisms.- 6.5.1 Bergmann’s Rule and Holocene Faunas.- 6.5.2 Pleistocene Extinctions and Extirpations.- 7 Biomes and Zonobiomes.- 7.1 The Coming of Ecology.- 7.2 Communities and Climate.- 7.2.1 Life Zones.- 7.2.2 Vegetation and Temperature.- 7.2.3 Communities as Dynamic Continua.- 7.2.4 Plant Physiognomy and Climate: a Predictive Model.- 7.2.5 Plant Productivity and Climate.- 7.2.6 Plants and the Biosphere: Model Interactions.- 7.3 Medium-Term Climatic Swings and Plant Communities.- 7.3.1 The Response of Vegetation to Deglaciation.- 7.3.2 The Response of Vegetation to Glacial-Interglacial Cycles.- 7.4 Long-Term Climatic Change and Biotic Communities.- 7.4.1 Biotic and Climatic Changes in the Cretaceous and Palaeogene Periods.- 7.4.2 Mass Extinctions and Climate.- 8 Synthesis.- 8.1 Relations in the Biosphere: a General Model.- 8.2 The Problem of Scale.- 8.3 The Origin of Cyclicity.- References.
