Climate change has been a central concern over recent years, with visible and highly publicized consequences such as melting Arctic ice and mountain glaciers, rising sea levels, and the submersion of low-lying coastal areas during mid-latitude and tropical cyclones. This book presents a review of the spatial impacts of contemporary climate change, with a focus on a systematic, multi-scalar approach. Beyond the facts - rises in temperature, changes in the spatial distribution of precipitation, melting of the marine and terrestrial cryosphere, changes in hydrological regimes at high and medium latitudes, etc. - it also analyzes the geopolitical consequences in the Arctic and Central Asia, changes to Mediterranean culture and to viticulture on a global scale, as well as impacts on the distribution of life, for example, in the Amazon rainforest, in large biomes on a global scale, and for birds.

This research effort develops a generalized Decision Support System (DSS) to assist contracting career field managers in making recruiting and retention decisions. The DSS focuses on the skill level inventories of the contracting enlisted force. The interest in this research was identified by contracting career field managers due to the recent negative trends in recruitment and retention and the lack of analytical tools available. To accomplish this objective, manpower models were developed using a combination of techniques gathered through interviews with Army and Air Force manpower analysts and a literature review focusing on manpower modeling.The models developed in this study are intended to assist career field managers in recruiting and retaining the right number and skill level mix of personnel in the contracting career field. The models are generalized enough to serve as a DSS for other Air Force Specialty Codes (AFSC) with minimal revision.