Environmental change has become a subject of major concern and has a wide and developing terminology. This comprehensive reference provides definitions and explanations of all the important environmental terms likely to be encountered in this field of study. These range from concise entries on basic terms to longer discussion of the important issues and more complex aspects of environmental change. The encyclopaedia covers the diverse sources of evidence of environmental change; the local regional and global effects; and the approaches and techniques used for reconstructing, dating, monitoring, modelling and predicting change. It addresses both natural and anthropogenic changes affecting the Earth in the past, present and future, over geological, intermediate and short timescales. The volume takes an interdisciplinary approach extending from the natural environmental sciences into relevant areas of the physical, earth, biological, archaeological and social sciences to provide a synthesis of all aspects of environmental change. -More than 7.000 terms and concepts defined, exemplified and crossreferenced in over 3.400 entries -Fully illustrated, indexed and extensively referenced throughout -Written by an international team of over 100 distinguished authors