Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 361, Issue 6405, Pages 920-923Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.aan5360
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- NSF [DEB-1241851, AGS-1243125, EAR-1304083]
- Department of the Interior's Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center
- Russian Academy of Sciences, FEB [15-1-2-067]
- Russian Foundation for Fundamental Research [15-05-06420]
- Direct For Biological Sciences
- Division Of Environmental Biology [1241851] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Environmental Biology
- Direct For Biological Sciences [1241891] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Emerging Frontiers
- Direct For Biological Sciences [1241870] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Impacts of global climate change on terrestrial ecosystems are imperfectly constrained by ecosystem models and direct observations. Pervasive ecosystem transformations occurred in response to warming and associated climatic changes during the last glacial-to-interglacial transition, which was comparable in magnitude to warming projected for the next century under high-emission scenarios. We reviewed 594 published paleoecological records to examine compositional and structural changes in terrestrial vegetation since the last glacial period and to project the magnitudes of ecosystem transformations under alternative future emission scenarios. Our results indicate that terrestrial ecosystems are highly sensitive to temperature change and suggest that, without major reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, terrestrial ecosystems worldwide are at risk of major transformation, with accompanying disruption of ecosystem services and impacts on biodiversity.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available