Download or read book Geoecology of Antarctic Ice-Free Coastal Landscapes written by L. Beyer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 435 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Research in Antarctica in the past two decades has fundamentally changed our perceptions of the southern continent. This volume describes typical terrestrial environments of the maritime and continental Antarctic. Life and chemical processes are restricted to small ranges of ambient temperature, availability of water and nutrients. This is reflected not only in life processes, but also in those of weathering and pedogenesis. The volume focuses on interactions between plants, animals and soils. It includes aspects of climate change, soil development and biology, as well as above- and below-ground results of interdisciplinary research projects combining data from botany, zoology, microbiology, pedology, and soil ecology.