The Earth’s Changing Climate: Natural Cycles and Human Effects
Edward Laws, Department of Environmental Sciences, Louisiana State University
The climate of the Earth has changed dramatically on a geologic timescale. As best we can tell from the geological record, the climate of the Earth is now cooler, and the CO2concentration in the atmosphere is lower than at almost any time in the last roughly 570 million years. We are currently in an ice age (the Quaternary Ice Age), and during that ice age glacial and interglacial cycles have alternated on a timeframe of roughly 100,000 years. The mild conditions during the current interglacial, the Holocene, have been the exception rather than the rule during the last roughly 2.6 million years. Human activities, particularly fossil fuel burning, have introduced large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere-ocean system. Eventually almost all of that CO2will be taken up by the ocean and neutralized by sediments at the bottom of the ocean, but in the meantime (roughly 20,000 years) the climate of the Earth will be much warmer than it has since human beings first appeared on this planet, and the chemistry of the ocean will change in ways that may lead to the extinction of species that are important components of present-day marine ecosystems. Temperatures will rise most dramatically at high latitudes in the northern hemisphere, and it is very likely that the icecap on Greenland will melt. If that happens, sea level will rise by at least about 7 meters, the result being the displacement of many people presently living in coastal communities.
Edward A. Laws博士是美国路易斯安那州立大学的教授、路易斯安那州立大学海岸与环境学院前任院长。他本科与博士教育均在哈佛大学完成。基于杰出的教学活动与学术成就，曾被多所美国大学聘为教授，如佛罗里达州立大学、夏威夷大学等。他先后主持完成资金总额超过1亿美元的美国国家自然科学基金，目前已发表160余篇科学论文（包括Nature、Science、PNAS及其他地球科学、海洋科学和环境科学领域的顶级期刊）及3本学术专著，所有学术论文（不包括专著）至今共被引用9894次，H-index = 44，并获得多项科学荣誉。其专著《Aquatic Pollution》不仅是美国各大学经典教学参考书，且被译为多种文字在世界发行。清华大学翻译的中文版成为我国各大学的重要参考书。
Laws教授不仅在自己的专业领域“海洋环境科学”成就突出，而且特别注重人文科学与文化交流，曾被我国多个大学与研究单位邀请做学术报告，如香港科技大学、中国科学院烟台海岸带研究所、国土部青岛海洋地质研究所等。我院的陈炳章博士和黄邦钦教授已与Laws教授开展海洋生态学领域的交流和合作，合作完成的一篇论文已投到海洋学的顶级刊物。
“追求真理、独立思考、注重人文”，凡与他接触过的人均会在他身上看到这一哈佛气质。他热衷于对最有普遍意义和恒久价值的真理和学理探求中；具有理解人、尊重人、帮助人的特别气质。由于对科学研究的炽烈热爱，对中国的深厚友情，他每年不远万里来到中国，以自己在学术上超乎一般的能力和优秀的人文科学修养，推动了我国相关专业领域，如滨海湿地科学、浮游植物生态学、水污染等学科的长足发展。
Woods Hole, MA 02543-1050
讲师，佛罗里达州立大学海洋学系, 1971- 1974
助理教授,美国夏威夷大学海洋学系, 1974 -1984
教授，美国夏威夷大学海洋学系，1984 – 2005
院长，美国路易斯安娜州立大学海岸与环境学院，2005-2008
教授，美国路易斯安娜州立大学海岸与环境学院，2008-
专业荣誉任职
美国海洋与湖沼学会、美国地球物理协会、环境毒理学和化学学会、毒理学学会等学会会员，担任包括Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Aquatic Microbial Ecology, Journal of Geophysical Research, Journal of Phycology, Journal of the Marine Biological，Journal of the World Aquaculture Society, Global Biogeochemical Cycles, Limnology and Oceanography, OceanologicaActa等二十多个杂志审稿人。
1. Laws, E. A., B. N. Popp, R. R. Bidigare, M. C. Kennicutt II, and S. A. Macko. 1995. Dependence of phytoplankton carbon isotopic composition on growth rate and [CO2]aq: Theoretical considerations and experimental results. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta59: 1131-1138.（引用423次）
2. Laws, E. A., P. G. Falkowski, W. O. Smith, H. Ducklow, and J. J. McCarthy. 2000. Temperature effects on export production in the open ocean. Global Biogeochemical Cycles14(4): 1231–1246.（引用391次）
3. Betzer, P.R., W.J. Showers, E.A. Laws, C.D. Winn, G.R. DiTullio, and P.M. Kroopnick. 1984. Primary productivity and particle fluxes on a transect of the equator at 153oW in the Pacific Ocean. Deep-Sea Research31: 1-11.（引用398次）
4. Popp, B. N., E. A. Laws, R. R. Bidigare, J. E. Dore, K. L. Hanson, and S. G. Wakeham. 1998. The effect of phytoplankton cell geometry on carbon isotopic fractionation. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta62: 69-77.（引用359次）
5. Laws, E.A., and T.T. Bannister. 1980. Nutrient and light-limited growth ofThalassiosirafluviatilisin continuous culture, with implications for phytoplankton growth in the ocean. Limnology and Oceanography25: 457-473.（引用337次）
6. Laws, E.A. 1991. Photosynthetic quotients, new production, and net community production in the open ocean. Deep-Sea Research38: 143-167.（引用265次）
7. Bidigare, R. R., A. Fluegge, K. H. Freeman, K. L. Hanson, J. M. Hayes, D. Hollander, J. P. Jasper, L. L. King. E. A. Laws, J. Milder, F. J. Millero, R. Pancost, B. N. Popp, P. A. Steinberg, and S. G. Wakeham. 1997. Consistent fractionation of13C in nature and in the laboratory: Growth-rate effects in some haptophyte algae. Global Biogeochemical Cycles11: 279-292（引用240次）
8. Karl, D. M.,E. A. Laws, P. Morris, P. J. leB.Williams, and S. Emerson. 2003. Metabolic balance of the open sea.Nature，426: 32.（引用106次）
9. Berner, R. A., S. T. Petsch, J. A. Lake, D. J. Beerling, B. N. Popp, R. S. Lane, E. A. Laws, M. B. Westley, N. Cassar, and F. I. Woodward. 2000. Isotope fractionation and atmospheric oxygen: Implications for Phanerozoic O2evolution.Science，287: 1630-1633.（引用133次）
10. Sinigalliano, C. D., Gidley, M. L., Shibata, T., Whitman, D., Dixon, T. H., Laws, E. A., Hou, A., Bachoon, D., Brand, L., Amaral-Zettler, L., Gast, R., Stewad, G. F., Nigro, O. D., Fujioka, R., Betancourt, W. Q., Vithanage, G., Mathews, J., Fleming, L. E., and Solo-Gabriele, H. M. 2007. Impacts of hurricane Katrina on microbial landscape of the New Orleans area.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences，104: 9029-9034.（引用45次）
11. Laws, E. A. 2008. Food web structure and planktonic predator/prey relationships in two eutrophic European lakes: Stability constraints on carbon fluxes.Limnology and Oceanography，53(2): 760-772.（引用45次）
12. Johnson, M. D., J. Völker, H. V. Moeller, E. A. Laws, K. J. Breslauer, and P. G. Falkowski. 2009. A universal constant for heat production in protists.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA106(16): 6696-6699.（引用21次）
13. Laws, E. A. 2013. Evaluation of In Situ Phytoplankton Growth Rates: A Synthesis of Data from Varied Approaches. Annual Review of Marine Science5: 247–268.（引用1次）
14. Chen, B., Laws, E. A., Liu, H., and Huang, B. 2013. Widespread occurrences of microzooplankton saturated grazing on phytoplankton in the sea. Limnology and Oceanography (submitted).
1. Laws, E.A. 1981. Aquatic Pollution: An Introductory Text. Wiley-Interscience. New York. 482 pp.
2. Laws, E.A. [ed.] 1987. Nutrient and Energy Cycling Among Phytoplankton, Bacteria, and Zooplankton. Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology Tech. Rept. No. 38. 102 pp.
3. Laws, E.A. 1993. Aquatic Pollution: An Introductory Text. 2nd edition. Wiley-Interscience. New York. 611 pp.
4. Laws, E. A. 1993. El Niño and the Peruvian Anchovy Fishery. University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. National Center for Atmospheric Research Information and Education Outreach Program. Boulder, CO. 61 pp.
5. Laws, E. A. 1997. Mathematical Methods for Oceanographers: An Introduction. Wiley-Interscience. New York. 343 pp.（引用40次）
6. Laws, E. A. 1998. Water Pollution Toxicology. Encyclopedia of Environmental Analysis and Remediation. R. A. Meyers (ed.), John Wiley & Sons, New York, p. 5248-5272.
7. Laws, E.A. 2000. Aquatic Pollution: An Introductory Text. 3rd edition. Wiley-Interscience. New York. 639 pp.（引用420次）
8. Laws, E. A. 2002. Environmental Toxicology. Encyclopedia of Physical Science and Technology, 3rded. Volume 5. Academic Press, p. 601-625.
9. Laws, E. A. 2003. Maximum Resiliency as a Determinant of Food Web Behavior. Pages 37-44 in Nation, J., I. Trofimova, J. D. Rand, and W. Sulis (eds.),Formal Descriptions of Developing Systems. NATO Science Series II. Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, Vol. 121. Kluwar Academic Publishers.
10. Schlitzer, R., P. Monfray, N. Hoepffner, G. Fischer, N. Gruber, R. Lampitt, M. Levy, E. Laws, T. Platt, S. Spall, and J. Steele. 2003. Global Ocean Productivity and the Fluxes of Carbon and Nutrients: Combining Observations and Models. JGOFS Report No. 38. International Council for Science. Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research. Bergen, Norway.
11. Fleming, L. and E. A. Laws (eds). 2006. The Oceans and Human Health. Oceanography 19(2). The Oceanography Society, Rockville, MD.
12. Laws, E. A. 2013. Toxic Chemical Risks. Pp. 565–594 in: Laws, E. A. (ed.), Environmental Toxicology. Springer, New York.737 pp.
13. Bienfang, P. K., H. Trapido-Rosenthal, and E. A. Laws. 2013. Bioaccumulation/Biomagnifications in Food Chains. Pp. 35–69 in: Laws, E. A. (ed.), Environmental Toxicology. Springer, New York.737 pp.
