Global Change and the Terrestrial Biosphere

Global climate change challenges ecologists to synthesize what we know to solve a problem with deep historical roots in our discipline. In ecology, the question, How do terrestrial ecosystems interact with the other earth systems to produce planetary change? has sufficient depth to be the focal challenge. This central question is sharpened further as the changes that we may be manifesting upon our planet s systems of land, sea, air and ice can have potential consequences for the future of human civilization. This book provides the depth of the history of global ecology and reviews the breadth of the ideas being studied today. Each chapter starts with a brief narrative about a scientist whose work traces forward into today s issues in global ecosystems. The discussions are framed in a growing realization that we may be altering the way our planet functions almost before we have gained the necessary knowledge of how it works at all.

Global climate change challenges ecologists to synthesize what weknow to solve a problem with deep historical roots in ourdiscipline. In ecology, the question, "How doterrestrial ecosystems interact with the other earth systems toproduce planetary change?" has sufficient depth to bethe focal challenge. This central question is sharpenedfurther as the changes that we may be manifesting upon ourplanet's systems of land, sea, air and ice can have potentialconsequences for the future of human civilization.This book provides the depth of the history of global ecologyand reviews the breadth of the ideas being studied today. Eachchapter starts with a brief narrative about a scientist whose worktraces forward into today's issues in globalecosystems. The discussions are framed in a growingrealization that we may be altering the way our planet functionsalmost before we have gained the necessary knowledge of how itworks at all.

Preface.1 Climatic change: ecology's big question.1.1 Early environmental biogeography: from mapping plant speciesdistributions to mapping vegetation.1.2 Global distributions of vegetation.1.3 Formation or biome interactions with climate.1.4 Concluding comments.References and notes.2 The kaleidoscope of past vegetation patterns.2.1 Vegetation in past climates: Quaternary palaeoecology.2.2 Challenges for environmental change studies from Quaternarypalaeoecology.2.3 Concluding comments.References and notes.3 The complication of time and space scales.3.1 The ecosystem concept and scale.3.2 Scale and the global dynamics of carbon.3.3 Formulation of ecological models.3.4 Interactive mosaic models.3.5 Concluding comments.References and notes.4 Meeting the climate change challenge.4.1 Historical roots of the 'greenhouse warming' concept.4.2 Climate and vegetation: the challenge of prediction.4.3 What is the signifi cance of global climate change onEarth's vegetation?4.4 Mosaic landscape models.4.5 Homogeneous landscape models and climate change.4.6 Interactive global mosaic models.4.7 Concluding comments.References and notes.5 Dynamic vegetation modelling using individual-basedmodels.5.1 Gap models: structure and model development.5.2 History of gap model development.5.3 Global climate change assessment applications of gapmodels.5.4 Theoretical implications for global change ecology from gapmodels.5.5 Concluding comments.References and notes.6 Vegetation futures and the rise of dynamic globalvegetation models.6.1 Including the effects of land surface attributes anddynamics in climate models.6.2 Dynamic global vegetation models.6.3 The development of dynamic global vegetation models.6.4 Investigating differences in dynamic global vegetation modelsimulations.6.5 Vegetation feedbacks on climate.6.6 Observations of recent vegetation change.6.7 Concluding comments.References and notes.7 Climate-changed futures - how different will theybe?7.1 The future view from the Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange.7.2 Carrying on from where the world was before now.7.3 Carrying on from where the world is now.7.4 Future realizations.7.5 Concluding considerations.References and notes.8 Climate change and global plant diversity.8.1 Making future predictions of diversity.8.2 Getting at the mechanisms that control speciesdiversity.8.3 Simulating the impact of changing climate and CO2 on futurediversity.8.4 The naturalization of invasive species.8.5 Concluding remarks.References and notes.9 Epilogue.References and notes.Index.