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In this introduction to the special issue on necrogeography and physical geography, a focus on landforms and landscapes is presented and applied to subdisciplinary areas, including geomorphology, climatology, biogeography, and soil science. The primary aim is to present past directions taken in the field by physical geographers and provide further areas for their potential engagement. The seven papers contained in this special issue are lastly conveyed in terms of their contribution to necrogeography as an applied physical geography in cemeteries, although not exclusively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even as it remains an informal term defining the emergence of humans as a force transforming Earth as a system, the Anthropocene is stimulating novel research and discussion across the academy and well beyond. While geography has always been deeply connected with the coupled human--environment paradigm, physical geographer's embrace of the Anthropocene still appears lukewarm at best. While there are good reasons to hesitate, including the fact that the Anthropocene is not yet, and might never be, formalized in the Geologic Time Scale, physical geographers have much to gain by embracing what is rapidly becoming the most influential scholarly discussion on human--environmental relations in a generation. This editorial was commissioned for the author's debut as Contributing Editor of Progress in Physical Geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial is the product of the Progress in Physical Geography lecture at the April 2013 meeting of the Association of American Geographers. The paper was presented by George Malanson, the North American Editor, and the co-authors presented critiques based on a draft. Subsequently, the manuscript was developed and revised based on discussion at the meeting and additional exchange among the co-authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soil moisture is a critical component of the earth system and plays an integrative role among the various subfields of physical geography. This paper highlights not just how soil moisture affects atmospheric, geomorphic, hydrologic, and biologic processes but that it lies at the intersection of these areas of scientific inquiry. Soil moisture impacts earth surface processes in such a way that it creates an obvious synergistic relationship among the various subfields of physical geography. The dispersive and cohesive properties of soil moisture also make it an important variable in regional and microclimatic analyses, landscape denudation and change through weathering, runoff generation and partitioning, mass wasting, and sediment transport. Thus, this paper serves as a call to use research in soil moisture as an integrative and unifying theme in physical geography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the effects of weather and climate impact on human activities in the U.S. Usage of climate data and information on broad range of social, economic and environmental applications; Implications of heat waves on lifestyles and health of affected population.

Reports on the views of Ronald Peel on the nature of desert geomorphology in Great Britain. Explanation about the questions of the climatic history of the present arid zone; Evidences for more humid conditions; Difficulty in quantifying the degree of climate change.