Abstract :
Accumulating evidence points to an anthropogenic ‘fingerprint’ on the global climate
change that has occurred in the last century. Climate change has, and will continue to have,
profound effects on the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems. As such, there is a
critical need to continue to develop a sound scientific basis for national and international
policies regulating carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions. This paper reflects
on the nature of current global change experiments, and provides recommendations for a
unified multidisciplinary approach to future research in this dynamic field. These
recommendations include: (1) better integration between experiments and models, and
amongst experimental, monitoring, and space-for-time studies; (2) stable and increased
support for long-term studies and multi-factor experiments; (3) explicit inclusion of
biodiversity, disturbance, and extreme events in experiments and models; (4) consideration
of timing vs intensity of global change factors in experiments and models; (5) evaluation of
potential thresholds or ecosystem ‘tipping points’; and (6) increased support for model–model
and model–experiment comparisons. These recommendations, which reflect discussions
within the TERACC international network of global change scientists, will facilitate the
unraveling of the complex direct and indirect effects of global climate change on terrestrial
ecosystems and their components.
