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U.S. Department of Energy
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Ecological consequences of a CO/sub 2/-induced climatic change on forest ecosystems. Volume II, Part 13 of environmental and societal consequences of a possible CO/sub 2/-induced climate change

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6944501
Discussions centered around four major issues: biogeography, e.g., geographic shifts in species' ranges and in ecosystems, faunal migration patterns; process and ecosystem-level responses e.g., primary and secondary productivity, decomposition rates, food web interactions, diversity; disturbance, e.g., frequency of fire, drought, glaze ice, hurricanes, which affect successional patterns and landscape species composition; and land use, the relationship between man's activities and forest utilization, e.g., forest-farm conversions. Interaction among the four categories is considerable. For example, changes in disturbance patterns and rates can alter regional biomass and diversity. Alternatively, the rate of migration of flora and fauna in response to a changing climate would likely be affected by land use pattern which alters both the number and distribution of safe sites for colonization and the rates of local extinction. Recommendations are made for research in the following areas: population-ecosystem modeling; climate-ecosystem interrelationships; spatio-geographic modeling; organismic tolerance - genetic heterogeneity; keystone and indicator species; spatial resolution of models; land use; and biological monitoring.
Research Organization:
Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ., Blacksburg (USA). Dept. of Biology; Southern Illinois Univ., Carbondale (USA). Dept. of Geography
DOE Contract Number:
AS01-79EV10019
OSTI ID:
6944501
Report Number(s):
DOE/EV/10019-13; ON: DE83002975
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English