In 1987 SCOPE launched a project to help improve our understanding of ecosystem and climate coupling. This study focuses on the effects of climate change on production and decomposition in coniferous forests and in both temperate and tropical grasslands.
It was necessary to investigate whole plant responses to simultaneous changes in atmospheric CO2 content, temperature regime and water availability to document direct and indirect effects of these environmental changes on ecosystem processes. Ecosystem models linking plant and soil response to climate change were reviewed. Diagnostic and predictive models were designed to work at multiple space and time scales for effective extrapolation and analysis of climate change scenarios.
Two major international interdisciplinary workshops were convened in the USA (1988) and in the UK (1990) while several smaller thematic workshops and modelling workshops were organised in the UK, USA, Sweden and Poland. A final synthesis meeting in Sweden (1992) brought together the information collected over the course of the project.
This volume critically assesses the present state of our knowledge, reviews extant forest and grasslands models, and develops foundations for the design of diagnostic and predictive models, as well as identifying plans for future research on ecosystem response to global change. Carbon flow and storage are emphasised, although the flow and storage of key nutrients such as nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus are also considered when deemed necessary to understand changes in the carbon budget of coniferous forests and grasslands.
The support and financial assistance provided by the following is gratefully acknowledged. Without their assistance this project would not have been possible: A. W. Mellon Foundation, National Science Foundation, and Electric Power Research Institute in the USA; the Royal Society and King's College London in the UK; in Sweden the Council for Forestry and Agricultural Research, Council for Planning and Co-ordination of Research, Environmental Protection Agency, Natural Science Research Council, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Wenner-Gren Center Foundation for Scientific Research; in Poland the Academy of Sciences (Scientific Committee Man and Environment}; and the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).
D.
O. Hall
September 24, 1996
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