Climate change and plant species responses over the Quaternary: Implications for ecosystem management

Conference · Sun Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1995

OSTI ID:248068

Tausch, R J; Nowak, C L ^[1]; Nowak, R S ^[2]

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1. Forest Service, Reno, NV (United States). Intermountain Research Station
2. Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States). Dept. of Environmental and Resource Sciences

A major part of why ecosystems occur, and behave as they do, is rooted in their long-term history of development through the past two and a half million years of the Quaternary. Throughout the Quaternary, the climate has been primarily glacial, with interglacials such as the past 10,000 years, being the average for only about 10% of the period. Plant species have responded individually to these cycles, resulting in a continual change in the species composition of plant communities. Paleoecological information clearly shows that communities and ecosystems are far less stable than one has assumed during the management activities over the past several decades. Pleistocene climate changes have also had major influences on plant evolution as species responded through adaptation, migration, or some combination of adaptation and migration. Analysis of past vegetation change or stasis, during past climatic oscillations is proving to be one of the most productive methods to help understand current and future ecosystem changes.

• OSTI ID: 248068
• Report Number(s): CONF-9504248--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BIOLOGICAL ADAPTATION
CLIMATIC CHANGE
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
PALEOCLIMATOLOGY
PLANTS
QUATERNARY PERIOD
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS