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Key results in the last 20 years have established the theoretical and observational foundations for developing a new nonlinear geophysical theory of floods in river basins. This theory, henceforth called the scaling theory, has the explicit goal to link the physics of runoff generating processes with spatial power-law statistical relations between floods and drainage areas across multiple scales of space and time. Published results have shown that the spatial power law statistical relations emerge asymptotically from conservation equations and physical processes as drainage area goes to infinity. These results have led to a key hypothesis that the physical basis of power laws in floods has its origin in the self-similarity...
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There is little doubt in the scientific community that if the current patterns of climate warming continue, there will be dramatic changes in the distribution of vegetation and forest cover throughout the boreal region. Most research has concentrated on predicting how rises in air temperature will (1) cause shifts in vegetation cover and the carbon balance in the terrestrial biome (Smith and Shugart 1993) or (2) change rates of soil respiration (Townsend et al. 1992; Randerson et al. 1996; Thompson et al. 1997). Recently, more sophisticated biogeochemical cycling models have been developed that actually model the processes responsible for carbon storage in vegetation to assess changes in the terrestrial carbon budget...
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