Wildfire–vegetation dynamics affect predictions of climate change impact on bird communities

Community‐level climate change indicators have been proposed to appraise the impact of global warming on community composition. However, non‐climate factors may also critically influence species distribution and biological community assembly. The aim of this paper was to study how fire–vegetation dynamics can modify our ability to predict the impact of climate change on bird communities, as described through a widely‐used climate change indicator: the community thermal index (CTI). Potential changes in bird species assemblage were predicted using the spatially‐explicit species assemblage modelling framework – SESAM – that applies successive filters to constrained predictions of richness and composition obtained by stacking species distribution models that hierarchically integrate climate change and wildfire–vegetation dynamics. We forecasted future values of CTI between current conditions and 2050, across a wide range of fire–vegetation and climate change scenarios. Fire–vegetation dynamics were simulated for Catalonia (Mediterranean basin) using a process‐based model that reproduces the spatial interaction between wildfire, vegetation dynamics and wildfire management under two IPCC climate scenarios. Net increases in CTI caused by the concomitant impact of climate warming and an increasingly severe wildfire regime were predicted. However, the overall increase in the CTI could be partially counterbalanced by forest expansion via land abandonment and efficient wildfire suppression policies. CTI is thus strongly dependent on complex interactions between climate change and fire–vegetation dynamics. The potential impacts on bird communities may be underestimated if an overestimation of richness is predicted but not constrained. Our findings highlight the need to explicitly incorporate these interactions when using indicators to interpret and forecast climate change impact in dynamic ecosystems. In fire‐prone systems, wildfire management and land‐use policies can potentially offset or heighten the effects of climate change on biological communities, offering an opportunity to address the impact of global climate change proactively.     

Climate Change or Land Use Dynamics: Do We Know What Climate Change Indicators Indicate?

Different components of global change can have interacting effects on biodiversity and this may influence our ability to detect the specific consequences of climate change through biodiversity indicators. Here, we analyze whether climate change indicators can be affected by land use dynamics that are not directly determined by climate change. To this aim, we analyzed three community-level indicators of climate change impacts that are based on the optimal thermal environment and average latitude of the distribution of bird species present at local communities. We used multiple regression models to relate the variation in climate change indicators to: i) environmental temperature; and ii) three landscape gradients reflecting important current land use change processes (land abandonment, fire impacts and urbanization), all of them having forest areas at their positive extremes. We found that, with few exceptions, landscape gradients determined the figures of climate change indicators as strongly as temperature. Bird communities in forest habitats had colder-dwelling bird species with more northern distributions than farmland, burnt or urban areas. Our results show that land use changes can reverse, hide or exacerbate our perception of climate change impacts when measured through community-level climate change indicators. We stress the need of an explicit incorporation of the interactions between climate change and land use dynamics to understand what are current climate change indicators indicating and be able to isolate real climate change impacts.     

Effects of Socioeconomic Conditions on Multiple Uses of Swamp Forests in Central Brazil

Local communities in central Brazil harvest buriti palm (Mauritia flexuosa) fruit from swamp forests as well as using them for agriculture and cattle and pig farming. This study describes the intensity of forest use by buriti fruit harvesters and identifies how their socioeconomic conditions influence resource use. We visited 75 swamp forests where buriti fruits are harvested and interviewed the head of the nearest household. Agriculture was practiced in 72?% of forests and cattle farming in 52?%. For almost half (48?%) of households agriculture and buriti fruit harvest were the main sources income. Forests resources were equally important to all socioeconomic classes, even richer farmers. The intensity of fruit harvest did not differ between collective and private use regimes of forests. Market access was a limitation to fruit harvest intensity. The high intensity of swamp forest use suggests that their conservation will require change to current management practices.     

The Impact of 850,000 Years of Climate Changes on the Structure and Dynamics of Mammal Food Webs

Most evidence of climate change impacts on food webs comes from modern studies and little is known about how ancient food webs have responded to climate changes in the past. Here, we integrate fossil evidence from 71 fossil sites, body-size relationships and actualism to reconstruct food webs for six large mammal communities that inhabited the Iberian Peninsula at different times during the Quaternary. We quantify the long-term dynamics of these food webs and study how their structure changed across the Quaternary, a period for which fossil data and climate changes are well known. Extinction, immigration and turnover rates were correlated with climate changes in the last 850 kyr. Yet, we find differences in the dynamics and structural properties of Pleistocene versus Holocene mammal communities that are not associated with glacial-interglacial cycles. Although all Quaternary mammal food webs were highly nested and robust to secondary extinctions, general food web properties changed in the Holocene. These results highlight the ability of communities to re-organize with the arrival of phylogenetically similar species without major structural changes, and the impact of climate change and super-generalist species (humans) on Iberian Holocene mammal communities.     

Water-energy relationships shape the phylogenetic diversity of terricolous lichen communities in Mediterranean mountains: Implications for conservation in a climate change scenario

Lichens are symbiotic organisms sensitive to climate change and susceptible to a severe decline in diversity, especially in high elevation environments that are already threatened. In this study, we focused on water-energy relationships derived from climatic variables and phylogenetic diversity indices of terricolous lichen communities occurring on a representative Mediterranean mountain. We hypothesized that the variation of precipitation and temperature and their interaction along the altitudinal gradient will shape the phylogenetic diversity and structure of lichen communities. Our results reveal that dry and arid conditions lead to a strong loss in phylogenetic diversity with consequent impoverishment of high elevation lichen communities under a climate change scenario. The interaction between variables, reflecting water-energy relationships with phylogenetic and community diversity patterns, suggests that in a future climate change scenario, the novel climatic conditions may reduce the capability of the species to survive harsher conditions, and Mediterranean mountains may face a severe loss of genetic diversity in a climate change scenario.     

Projected Range Contractions of European Protected Oceanic Montane Plant Communities: Focus on Climate Change Impacts Is Essential for Their Future Conservation

Global climate is rapidly changing and while many studies have investigated the potential impacts of this on the distribution of montane plant species and communities, few have focused on those with oceanic montane affinities. In Europe, highly sensitive bryophyte species reach their optimum occurrence, highest diversity and abundance in the north-west hyperoceanic regions, while a number of montane vascular plant species occur here at the edge of their range. This study evaluates the potential impact of climate change on the distribution of these species and assesses the implications for EU Habitats Directive-protected oceanic montane plant communities. We applied an ensemble of species distribution modelling techniques, using atlas data of 30 vascular plant and bryophyte species, to calculate range changes under projected future climate change. The future effectiveness of the protected area network to conserve these species was evaluated using gap analysis. We found that the majority of these montane species are projected to lose suitable climate space, primarily at lower altitudes, or that areas of suitable climate will principally shift northwards. In particular, rare oceanic montane bryophytes have poor dispersal capacity and are likely to be especially vulnerable to contractions in their current climate space. Significantly different projected range change responses were found between 1) oceanic montane bryophytes and vascular plants; 2) species belonging to different montane plant communities; 3) species categorised according to different biomes and eastern limit classifications. The inclusion of topographical variables in addition to climate, significantly improved the statistical and spatial performance of models. The current protected area network is projected to become less effective, especially for specialised arctic-montane species, posing a challenge to conserving oceanic montane plant communities. Conservation management plans need significantly greater focus on potential climate change impacts, including models with higher-resolution species distribution and environmental data, to aid these communities'' long-term survival.     

Man and the last great wilderness: human impact on the deep sea

The deep sea, the largest ecosystem on Earth and one of the least studied, harbours high biodiversity and provides a wealth of resources. Although humans have used the oceans for millennia, technological developments now allow exploitation of fisheries resources, hydrocarbons and minerals below 2000 m depth. The remoteness of the deep seafloor has promoted the disposal of residues and litter. Ocean acidification and climate change now bring a new dimension of global effects. Thus the challenges facing the deep sea are large and accelerating, providing a new imperative for the science community, industry and national and international organizations to work together to develop successful exploitation management and conservation of the deep-sea ecosystem. This paper provides scientific expert judgement and a semi-quantitative analysis of past, present and future impacts of human-related activities on global deep-sea habitats within three categories: disposal, exploitation and climate change. The analysis is the result of a Census of Marine Life--SYNDEEP workshop (September 2008). A detailed review of known impacts and their effects is provided. The analysis shows how, in recent decades, the most significant anthropogenic activities that affect the deep sea have evolved from mainly disposal (past) to exploitation (present). We predict that from now and into the future, increases in atmospheric CO(2) and facets and consequences of climate change will have the most impact on deep-sea habitats and their fauna. Synergies between different anthropogenic pressures and associated effects are discussed, indicating that most synergies are related to increased atmospheric CO(2) and climate change effects. We identify deep-sea ecosystems we believe are at higher risk from human impacts in the near future: benthic communities on sedimentary upper slopes, cold-water corals, canyon benthic communities and seamount pelagic and benthic communities. We finalise this review with a short discussion on protection and management methods.     

Site fertility drives temporal turnover of vegetation at high latitudes

Experimental evidence shows that site fertility is a key modulator underlying plant community changes under climate change. Communities on fertile sites, with species having fast dynamics, have been found to react more strongly to climate change than communities on infertile sites with slow dynamics. However, it is still unclear whether this generally applies to high‐latitude plant communities in natural environments at broad spatial scales. We tested a hypothesis that vegetation of fertile sites experiences greater changes over several decades and thus would be more responsive under contemporary climate change compared to infertile sites that are expected to show more resistance. We resurveyed understorey communities (vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens) of four infertile and four fertile forest sites along a latitudinal bioclimatic gradient. Sites had remained outside direct human disturbance. We analyzed the magnitude of temporal community turnover, changes in the abundances of plant morphological groups and strategy classes, and changes in species diversity. In agreement with our hypothesis, temporal turnover of communities was consistently greater on fertile sites compared to infertile sites. However, our results suggest that the larger turnover of fertile communities is not primarily related to the direct effects of climatic warming. Furthermore, community changes in both fertile and infertile sites showed remarkable variation in terms of shares of plant functional groups and strategy classes and measures of species diversity. This further emphasizes the essential role of baseline environmental conditions and nonclimatic drivers underlying vegetation changes. Our results show that site fertility is a key determinant of the overall rate of high‐latitude vegetation changes but the composition of plant communities in different ecological contexts is variously impacted by nonclimatic drivers over time.     

Effects of storm frequency on dune vegetation

In the Gulf of Mexico, barrier islands absorb the majority of wind and wave action from storms, which modifies their dune morphology and vegetation dynamics. Storm frequency is predicted to increase as a result of climate change, yet the effects of this change on coastal ecosystems remain poorly understood. Using estimates of plant growth in storm and nonstorm years from long‐term census data describing the dynamics of dune vegetation on St. George Island, FL, we built a first‐order model that predicts how dune communities will respond to a change in storm frequency. It predicts that an increasing frequency of storms will result in a change in the vegetation across the dunes. The fore‐ and interdune communities are predicted to become more similar to one another through the dominance of a small number of common storm‐resilient species. Alternatively, the backdune community is predicted to become more distinct through an increase in rare species that represent primary succession. Finally, the model predicts that many species will not respond to an increase in the number of storms per year in the same manner in which they respond to current storm frequency. This model is beneficial both for the development of more complex approaches to predicting effects of climate change and for informing preventative management techniques.     

Multiscale climate change impacts on plant diversity in the Atacama Desert

Comprehending ecological dynamics requires not only knowledge of modern communities but also detailed reconstructions of ecosystem history. Ancient DNA (aDNA) metabarcoding allows biodiversity responses to major climatic change to be explored at different spatial and temporal scales. We extracted aDNA preserved in fossil rodent middens to reconstruct late Quaternary vegetation dynamics in the hyperarid Atacama Desert. By comparing our paleo‐informed millennial record with contemporary observations of interannual variations in diversity, we show local plant communities behave differentially at different timescales. In the interannual (years to decades) time frame, only annual herbaceous expand and contract their distributional ranges (emerging from persistent seed banks) in response to precipitation, whereas perennials distribution appears to be extraordinarily resilient. In contrast, at longer timescales (thousands of years) many perennial species were displaced up to 1,000 m downslope during pluvial events. Given ongoing and future natural and anthropogenically induced climate change, our results not only provide baselines for vegetation in the Atacama Desert, but also help to inform how these and other high mountain plant communities may respond to fluctuations of climate in the future.     

Animal behaviour shapes the ecological effects of ocean acidification and warming: moving from individual to community‐level responses

Biological communities are shaped by complex interactions between organisms and their environment as well as interactions with other species. Humans are rapidly changing the marine environment through increasing greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in ocean warming and acidification. The first response by animals to environmental change is predominantly through modification of their behaviour, which in turn affects species interactions and ecological processes. Yet, many climate change studies ignore animal behaviour. Furthermore, our current knowledge of how global change alters animal behaviour is mostly restricted to single species, life phases and stressors, leading to an incomplete view of how coinciding climate stressors can affect the ecological interactions that structure biological communities. Here, we first review studies on the effects of warming and acidification on the behaviour of marine animals. We demonstrate how pervasive the effects of global change are on a wide range of critical behaviours that determine the persistence of species and their success in ecological communities. We then evaluate several approaches to studying the ecological effects of warming and acidification, and identify knowledge gaps that need to be filled, to better understand how global change will affect marine populations and communities through altered animal behaviours. Our review provides a synthesis of the far‐reaching consequences that behavioural changes could have for marine ecosystems in a rapidly changing environment. Without considering the pervasive effects of climate change on animal behaviour we will limit our ability to forecast the impacts of ocean change and provide insights that can aid management strategies.     

Interspecific interactions affect species and community responses to climate shifts

The response of individual species to climate change may alter the composition and dynamics of communities. Here, we show that the impacts of environmental change on communities can depend on the nature of the interspecific interactions: mutualistic communities typically respond differently than commensalistic or parasitic communities. We model and analyse the geographic range shifting of metapopulations of two interacting species – a host and an obligate species. Different types of interspecific interactions are implemented by modifying local extinction rates according to the presence/absence of the other species. We distinguish and compare three fundamentally different community types: mutualism, commensalism and parasitism. We find that community dynamics during geographic range shifting critically depends on the type of interspecific interactions. Parasitic interactions exacerbate the negative effect of environmental change whereas mutualistic interactions only partly compensate it. Commensalistic interactions exhibit an intermediate response. Based on these model outcomes, we predict that parasitic species interactions may be more vulnerable to geographic range shifting than commensalistic or mutualistic ones. However, we observe that when climate stabilises following a period of change, the rate of community recovery is largely independent of the type of interspecific interactions. These results emphasize that communities respond delicately to environmental change, and that local interspecific interactions can affect range shifting communities at large spatial scales.     

Is the grass always greener? Land surface phenology reveals differences in peak and season‐long vegetation productivity responses to climate and management

Vegetation phenology—the seasonal timing and duration of vegetative phases—is controlled by spatiotemporally variable contributions of climatic and environmental factors plus additional potential influence from human management. We used land surface phenology derived from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer and climate data to examine variability in vegetation productivity and phenological dates from 1989 to 2014 in the U.S. Northwestern Plains, a region with notable spatial heterogeneity in climate, vegetation, and land use. We first analyzed interannual trends in six phenological measures as a baseline. We then demonstrated how including annual‐resolution predictors can provide more nuanced insights into measures of phenology between plant communities and across the ecoregion. Across the study area, higher annual precipitation increased both peak and season‐long productivity. In contrast, higher mean annual temperatures tended to increase peak productivity but for the majority of the study area decreased season‐long productivity. Annual precipitation and temperature had strong explanatory power for productivity‐related phenology measures but predicted date‐based measures poorly. We found that relationships between climate and phenology varied across the region and among plant communities and that factors such as recovery from disturbance and anthropogenic management also contributed in certain regions. In sum, phenological measures did not respond ubiquitously nor covary in their responses. Nonclimatic dynamics can decouple phenology from climate; therefore, analyses including only interannual trends should not assume climate alone drives patterns. For example, models of areas exhibiting greening or browning should account for climate, anthropogenic influence, and natural disturbances. Investigating multiple aspects of phenology to describe growing‐season dynamics provides a richer understanding of spatiotemporal patterns that can be used for predicting ecosystem responses to future climates and land‐use change. Such understanding allows for clearer interpretation of results for conservation, wildlife, and land management.     

Analysis of phenotypic change in relation to climatic drivers in a population of Soay sheep Ovis aries

Climatic change has frequently been identified as a key driver of change in biological communities. These changes can take the form of alterations to population dynamics, phenotypic characters, genetics and the life history of organisms and can have impacts on entire ecosystems. This study presents a novel investigation of how changes in a large scale climatic index, the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) can influence population dynamics and phenotypic characters in a population of ungulates. We use an integral projection model combined with actual climate change predictions to project future body size distributions for a population of Soay sheep Ovis aries. The climate change predictions used to direct our model projections were taken from published results of climate models, covering a range of different emissions scenarios. Our model results showed that for positive changes in the mean NAO large population declines occurred simultaneously with increases in mean body weight. The exact direction and magnitude of changes to population dynamics and character distributions were dependent on the greenhouse gas emissions scenario and model used to predict the NAO. This study has demonstrated how integral projection models can use outputs of climate models to direct projections of population dynamics and phenotypic character distributions. This approach allows the results of this study to be placed within current climate change research. The nature of integral projection models means that this methodology can be easily applied to other populations. The model can also be easily updated when new climate change predictions become available, making it a useful tool for understanding potential population level responses to climatic change. Synthesis Understanding how changes in climate affect biological communities is a key component in predicting the future form of populations. Utilising a novel approach that incorporates climatic drivers (in this instance the winter North Atlantic Oscillation) into an integral projection model framework, we predict future Soay sheep dynamics under specific climate change scenarios. Tracking quantitative trait distributions and life history metrics, our results predict declining population size and increasing body weight for an increasingly positive winter North Atlantic Oscillation index, as predicted by climate models. This has important implications for future wildlife management strategies and linking demographic responses to climate change.     

The relative importance of climatic effects, wildfires and management for future forest landscape dynamics in the Swiss Alps

Forest landscape dynamics result from the complex interaction of driving forces and ecological processes operating on various scales. Projected climate change for the 21st century will alter climate‐sensitive processes, causing shifts in species composition and also bringing about changes in disturbance regimes, particularly regarding wildfires. Previous studies of the impact of climate change on forests have focused mainly on the direct effects of climate. In the present study, we assessed the interactions among forest dynamics, climate change and large‐scale disturbances such as fire, wind and forest management. We used the Land Clim model to investigate the influence, interactions and the relative importance of these different drivers of landscape dynamics in two case study areas of the European Alps. The simulations revealed that projected future climate change would cause extensive forest cover changes, beginning in the coming decades. Fire is likely to become almost as important for shaping the landscape as the direct effects of climate change, even in areas where major wildfires do not occur under current climatic conditions. The effects of variable wind disturbances and harvesting regimes, however, are less likely to have a considerable impact on forest development compared with the direct effects of climate change coupled with the indirect effects of increased fire activity. We conclude that the joint direct and indirect effects of climate change are likely to have major consequences for mountain forests in the European Alps, including their ability to provide protection against natural hazards.     

Aquifer and surface-water ostracodes in Quaternary paleowetland deposits of southern Nevada,USA

Despite the importance of small tropical streams for maintaining freshwater biodiversity and providing essential ecosystem services to humans, relatively few studies have investigated multiple-stressor effects of climate and land-use change on these ecosystems, and how these effects may interact. To illustrate these knowledge gaps, we reviewed the current state of knowledge regarding the ecological impacts of climate change and catchment land use on small tropical streams. We consider the effects of predicted changes in streamflow dynamics and water temperatures on water chemistry, habitat structure, aquatic biota, and ecosystem processes. We highlight the pervasive individual effects of climate and land-use change on algal, macroinvertebrate, and fish communities, and in stream metabolism and decomposition processes. We also discuss potential responses of tropical streams in a multiple-stressor scenario, considering higher temperatures and shifts in hydrological dynamics. Finally, we identify six key knowledge gaps in the ecology of low-order tropical streams and indicate future research directions that may improve catchment management in the tropics to help alleviate climate-change impacts and biodiversity losses.     

沿水分梯度草原群落NPP动态及对气候变化响应的模拟分析

 水分条件不仅影响半干旱区群落的组成, 而且在一定程度上决定了群落的功能。处于不同水分条件生境下群落的优势物种在水分利用和同化物利用效率方面的功能特征会存在差异, 这些差异将导致群落对于气候变化产生不同的响应, 进而影响到景观和区域尺度上对于全球变化下碳动态和格局的分析。该文选取了锡林河流域典型草原区沿水分梯度的4个代表群落, 在野外实验测定并结合长期定位研究成果基础上, 利用BIOME-BGC模型对代表群落的长期净初级生产力(Net primary productivity,NPP)动态进行了模拟和模型验证。 通过分析该地区1953～2005年气候变化趋势, 推测了未来可能的气候变化情景, 进而模拟了气候变化下4个群落长期NPP动态的响应。结果表明,当前气候条件下, 羊草(Leymus chinensis)群落NPP平均值为197.76 gC·m^-2 (SE=7.11), 大针茅(Stipa grandis)群落NPP平均值为198.95 gC·m^-2 (SE=6.41), 贝加尔针茅(Stipa baicalensis)群落NPP平均值为210.41 gC·m^-2(SE=7.87), 克氏针茅(Stipa krylovii)群落NPP平均值为144.92 gC·m^{- 2} (SE=4.64), 4个群落NPP平均值为188.01 gC·m^-2 (SE=3.72); 气候变化情景下, 温度增加下(P0T1),NPP平均下降14.2%,降水增加下(P1T0), NPP平均增加13.2%,温度与降水都增加情景下(P1T1), NPP平均下降2 .7%, 但由于生境水分条件差别和优势物种功能特征差异, 4个群落表现出了增减幅度不同的趋势。对气候因子的敏感性分析及回归分析表明, 降水是该地区NPP最主要的决定因子, 而温度决定作用相对较小,主要通过影响植物的呼吸和水分蒸散等过程影响NPP。在最有可能代表未来气候 变化的温度增加的两种情景下(P0T1、P1T1), NPP均呈下降趋势。群落NPP对气候变化的响应趋势与水分胁迫系数(Water stress index, WSI)、碳胁迫系数(Carbon stress index, CSI)变化密切相关。克氏针茅群落由于所处生境水分条件差,WSI高,对降水的依赖程度最大;贝加尔针茅群落一方面处于较好的水分生境,具有较小的WSI,另一方面,由于具有高碳氮比,维持呼吸消耗的光合产物比例低,CSI远低于其它3个群落, 未来气候变化下, NPP较其它3个群落仍较高。     

Landscape fragmentation affects responses of avian communities to climate change

Forecasting the consequences of climate change is contingent upon our understanding of the relationship between biodiversity patterns and climatic variability. While the impacts of climate change on individual species have been well‐documented, there is a paucity of studies on climate‐mediated changes in community dynamics. Our objectives were to investigate the relationship between temporal turnover in avian biodiversity and changes in climatic conditions and to assess the role of landscape fragmentation in affecting this relationship. We hypothesized that community turnover would be highest in regions experiencing the most pronounced changes in climate and that these patterns would be reduced in human‐dominated landscapes. To test this hypothesis, we quantified temporal turnover in avian communities over a 20‐year period using data from the New York State Breeding Atlases collected during 1980–1985 and 2000–2005. We applied Bayesian spatially varying intercept models to evaluate the relationship between temporal turnover and temporal trends in climatic conditions and landscape fragmentation. We found that models including interaction terms between climate change and landscape fragmentation were superior to models without the interaction terms, suggesting that the relationship between avian community turnover and changes in climatic conditions was affected by the level of landscape fragmentation. Specifically, we found weaker associations between temporal turnover and climatic change in regions with prevalent habitat fragmentation. We suggest that avian communities in fragmented landscapes are more robust to climate change than communities found in contiguous habitats because they are comprised of species with wider thermal niches and thus are less susceptible to shifts in climatic variability. We conclude that highly fragmented regions are likely to undergo less pronounced changes in composition and structure of faunal communities as a result of climate change, whereas those changes are likely to be greater in contiguous and unfragmented habitats.     

Impacts of recent climate change on terrestrial flora and fauna: Some emerging Australian examples

The effects of anthropogenic climate change on biodiversity are well known for some high‐profile Australian marine systems, including coral bleaching and kelp forest devastation. Less well‐published are the impacts of climate change being observed in terrestrial ecosystems, although ecological models have predicted substantial changes are likely. Detecting and attributing terrestrial changes to anthropogenic factors is difficult due to the ecological importance of extreme conditions, the noisy nature of short‐term data collected with limited resources, and complexities introduced by biotic interactions. Here, we provide a suite of case studies that have considered possible impacts of anthropogenic climate change on Australian terrestrial systems. Our intention is to provide a diverse collection of stories illustrating how Australian flora and fauna are likely responding to direct and indirect effects of anthropogenic climate change. We aim to raise awareness rather than be comprehensive. We include case studies covering canopy dieback in forests, compositional shifts in vegetation, positive feedbacks between climate, vegetation and disturbance regimes, local extinctions in plants, size changes in birds, phenological shifts in reproduction and shifting biotic interactions that threaten communities and endangered species. Some of these changes are direct and clear cut, others are indirect and less clearly connected to climate change; however, all are important in providing insights into the future state of terrestrial ecosystems. We also highlight some of the management issues relevant to conserving terrestrial communities and ecosystems in the face of anthropogenic climate change.