From Transient to Steady-state Response of Ecosystems to Atmospheric CO2-enrichment and Global Climate Change: Conceptual Challenges and Need for an Integrated Approach |
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Authors: | Lindsey E Rustad |
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Institution: | (1) USDA Forest Service, 271 Mast Road, Durham, NH, UK |
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Abstract: | Evidence continues to accumulate that humans are significantly increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations, resulting in unprecedented changes in the global climate system. Experimental manipulations of terrestrial
ecosystems and their components have greatly increased our understanding of short-term responses to these global perturbations
and have provided valuable input to ecosystem, dynamic vegetation, and global scale models. However, concerns exist that these
initial experimental responses may be transitory, thereby limiting our ability to extrapolate short-term experimental responses
to infer longer-term effects. To do these extrapolations, it will be necessary to understand changes in response patterns
over time, including alterations in the magnitude, direction, and rate of change of the responses. These issues represent
one of our largest challenges in accurately predicting longer-term changes in ecosystems and associated feedbacks to the climate
system. Key issues that need to be considered when designing future experiments or refining models include: linear vs. non-linear
responses, direct vs. indirect effects, lags in response, acclimation, resource limitation, homeostasis, buffers, thresholds,
ecosystem stoichiometry, turnover rates and times, and alterations in species composition. Although experimental and landscape
evidence for these response patterns exist, extrapolating longer-term response patterns from short-term experiments will ultimately
require a unified multidisciplinary approach, including better communication and collaboration between theoreticists, experimentalists
and modelers. |
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Keywords: | Climate change CO2 enrichment Ecosystem modeling Global change Temporal scaling |
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