Terrestrial Ecosystems in a Changing World

✍ Scribed by Louis F. Pitelka, Josep G. Canadell, Diane E. Pataki

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 2007
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 344
• Series: Global Change — The IGBP Series
• Edition: 1st
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Over 100 authors present 25 contributions on the impacts of global change on terrestrial ecosystems including:

• key processes of the earth system such as the CO2 fertilization effect, shifts in disturbances and biome distribution, the saturation of the terrestrial carbon sink, and changes in functional biodiversity,

• ecosystem services such the production of wheat, pest control, and carbon storage in croplands, and

• sensitive regions in the world threaten by rapid changes in climate and land use such as high latitudes ecosystems, tropical forest in Southeast Asia, and ecosystems dominated by Monsoon climate.

The book also explores new research developments on spatial thresholds and nonlinearities, the key role of urban development in global biogeochemical processes, and the integration of natural and social sciences to address complex problems of the human-environment system.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages I-XXIV
Global Ecology, Networks, and Research Synthesis....Pages 1-5
Front Matter....Pages 7-7
CO 2 Fertilization: When, Where, How Much?....Pages 9-21
Ecosystem Responses to Warming and Interacting Global Change Factors....Pages 23-36
Insights from Stable Isotopes on the Role of Terrestrial Ecosystems in the Global Carbon Cycle....Pages 37-44
Effects of Urban Land-Use Change on Biogeochemical Cycles....Pages 45-58
Saturation of the Terrestrial Carbon Sink....Pages 59-78
Front Matter....Pages 79-79
Functional Diversity — at the Crossroads between Ecosystem Functioning and Environmental Filters....Pages 81-91
Linking Plant Invasions to Global Environmental Change....Pages 93-102
Plant Biodiversity and Responses to Elevated Carbon Dioxide....Pages 103-112
Predicting the Ecosystem Consequences of Biodiversity Loss: the Biomerge Framework....Pages 113-126
Front Matter....Pages 127-127
Plant Species Migration as a Key Uncertainty in Predicting Future Impacts of Climate Change on Ecosystems: Progress and Challenges....Pages 129-137
Understanding Global Fire Dynamics by Classifying and Comparing Spatial Models of Vegetation and Fire....Pages 139-148
Plant Functional Types: Are We Getting Any Closer to the Holy Grail?....Pages 149-164
Spatial Nonlinearities: Cascading Effects in the Earth System....Pages 165-174
Dynamic Global Vegetation Modeling: Quantifying Terrestrial Ecosystem Responses to Large-Scale Environmental Change....Pages 175-192
Front Matter....Pages 193-193
Wheat Production Systems and Global Climate Change....Pages 195-209
Pests Under Global Change — Meeting Your Future Landlords?....Pages 211-226
Greenhouse Gas Mitigation Potential in Agricultural Soils....Pages 227-235
Carbon and Water Tradeoffs in Conversions to Forests and Shrublands....Pages 237-246
Natural and Human Dimensions of Land Degradation in Drylands: Causes and Consequences....Pages 247-257
Front Matter....Pages 259-259
Southeast Asian Fire Regimes and Land Development Policy....Pages 261-271
Global Change Impacts on Agroecosystems of Eastern China....Pages 273-283
Terrestrial Ecosystems in Monsoon Asia: Scaling up from Shoot Module to Watershed....Pages 285-296
Responses of High Latitude Ecosystems to Global Change: Potential Consequences for the Climate System....Pages 297-310
Front Matter....Pages 311-311
The Future Research Challenge: the Global Land Project....Pages 313-322
Back Matter....Pages 323-336

✦ Subjects

Biogeosciences; Climate Change; Geoecology/Natural Processes; Soil Science & Conservation; Meteorology/Climatology; Physical Geography