Biological Consequences Of Global Climate Change

Describes the forces that shape the earth's climate and how climate change, particularly greenhouse warming, may impact ecosystems and agriculture. Past climates and past ecosystem changes are reviewed in order to best understand the future. Scientists are predicting a 3 C increase in the Earth's climate within 75 to 100 years. This rate of temperature change and the warmer conditions will stress many organisms and probably realign some ecosystems. Special events, such as El Nino and the stratospheric ozone hole, are significant features of global change considered.

Climate Change: Evidence and Causes is a jointly produced publication of The US National Academy of Sciences and The Royal Society. Written by a UK-US team of leading climate scientists and reviewed by climate scientists and others, the publication is intended as a brief, readable reference document for decision makers, policy makers, educators, and other individuals seeking authoritative information on the some of the questions that continue to be asked. Climate Change makes clear what is well-established and where understanding is still developing. It echoes and builds upon the long history of climate-related work from both national academies, as well as on the newest climate-change assessment from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. It touches on current areas of active debate and ongoing research, such as the link between ocean heat content and the rate of warming.

The biological effects of global warming should be of concern to all thinking individuals, for warming could cause profound disruption of natural ecosystems and could threaten many species with extinction. This important book--the first to discuss in detail the consequences of global warming for ecosystems--includes commentary by distinguished scientists on many aspects of this critical problem. Experts describe responses of animals and plants to previous climate changes, interactions between various environmental components (precipitation and soil chemistry, for example), and synergisms between climate change and human activities such as deforestation. They consider many specific ecosystems, including tropical forests, the deciduous forests of eastern North America, the forests of the Pacific Northwest, Mediterranean-type ecosystems in California, arctic tundra, and arctic marine systems. Offering discussions that are both factual and speculative, the volume points the way to future investigations of the implications of global warming.

The concepts and concerns regarding the global effects of a continued increase in the atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases have enjoyed a high visibility in newspapers and scientific journals. This concern is now being translated into big-science projects. These international projects aim to understand better the processes of climate and ecosystem changes and impacts and are being designed under the aegis of the World Climate Research Programme and the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. Biological and climatic systems are intertwined in processes leading to impacts and feedbacks and so it has emerged that climatologists, atmospheric scientists, terrestrial and marine ecologists must collaborate in research programmes, else the bases of their future projections are incomplete. This special volume of Advances in Ecological Research brings together eight papers which propose and demonstrate the two major components of current climate change research, future prediction and interdisciplinary approach.

Climate change has moved from being a contested phenomenon to the top of the agenda at global summits. Climate Change Biology is the first major textbook to address the critical issue of how climate change may affect life on the planet, and particularly its impact on human populations. Presented in four parts, the first deals extensively with the physical evidence of climate change and various modelling efforts to predict its future. Biological responses are addressed in the second part, from the individual's physiology to populations and ecosystems, and further to considering adaptation and evolution. The third part examines the specific impact climate change may have on natural resources, agriculture and forestry. The final part considers research on the cutting edge of impact prediction and the practical and philosophical limitations on our abilities to predict these impacts. This text will be a useful asset to the growing number of both undergraduate and graduate courses on impacts of climate change, as well as providing a succinct overview for researchers new to the field.

climate changes have had dramatic repercussions, including large numbers of extinctions and extensive shifts in species ranges

The second edition of this acclaimed text has been fully updated and substantially expanded to include the considerable developments (since publication of the first edition) in our understanding of the science of climate change, its impacts on biological and human systems, and developments in climate policy. Written in an accessible style, it provides a broad review of past, present and likely future climate change from the viewpoints of biology, ecology, human ecology and Earth system science. It will again prove to be invaluable to a wide range of readers, from students in the life sciences who need a brief overview of the basics of climate science, to atmospheric science, geography, geoscience and environmental science students who need to understand the biological and human ecological implications of climate change. It is also a valuable reference text for those involved in environmental monitoring, conservation and policy making.