Product Description
This book describes the physical microenvironment of living organisms. It presents a simplified discussion of heat and mass transfer models and applies them to exchange processes between organisms and their surroundings. Emphasis is placed on teaching the student how to calculate actual transfer rates, rather than just studying the principles involved. Numerous examples are provided to illustrate many of the principles, and problems are included at the end of each chapter to help the student develop skills in using the equations and to gain an understanding of modern environmental biophysics. The book is an engineering approach to environmental biology.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 2 reviews)

A dense book for a complex topic

Campbell is thorough in his approach to biophysical analysis of multiple environmental scenarios. As a text book, it is fairly dense and provides hints on how to solve specific problems throughout the text. However, finding those hints is sometimes fairly tricky. The equations presented are the latest version of the equations, but some may produce skewed answers in extreme condtions. Living in interior Alaska, some of Campbell's formulas and tables just don't cut it for winter and high-latitude conditions. All in all a solid book though, despite it's initial density and sometimes insufficient clarity.
October 03, 2005

excellent and unique update in the subject

This text is an excellent companion for anybody dealing with transfers of energy and water in the biosphere, particularly at the plant-canopy level. Badly needed since the only comparable textbook is Monteith & Unsworth - a little outdated and more physically based than this one, which is more bio-oriented and includes current remote sensing use. Excellent reference, and well organized course textbook. There are some mistakes but I know of a second edition appearing this year which will correct them.
June 28, 2000

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