Terrestrial Ecosystems in a Changing World

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.

Josep Candadell
Science officer of the global change and terrestrial ecosystems (GCTE) core project of IGBP at Standford University, and executive officer of GCTE at CSIRO-Australia. Currently, executive director of the Global Carbon Project, a joint project of IGBP, IHDP, WCRP, and Diversitas


Diane Pataki
Former Scientific Officer for GCTE Focus 1, Ecosystem Physiology, at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, USA. Currently an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Irvine, jointly in the Department of Earth System Science and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology


Louis Pitelka
Chief Science Advisory for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Competitive Grants Program. Former Chair of the Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems core project of IGBP. Involved in research on the effects of global change on terrestrial ecosystems since 1990. Former Editor-in-Chief of Ecological Applications