[EBOOK] Climate Change and Managed Ecosystems, Edited by J.S. Bhatti ET AL., Published by CRC

The idea for this book arose during the planning phases of an International Conference in Edmonton, Canada in July 2004 entitled “The Science of Changing Climates — Impacts on Agriculture, Forestry and Wetlands.” The conference was organized jointly by the Canadian Societies of Animal Science, Plant Science and Soil Science with support from Natural Resources Canada/Canadian Forest Service because they saw climate change as one of the most serious environmental problems facing the world. The United Nations Convention on Climate Change (UN 1992, article 2) called for a “... stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system ...” For agriculture, forestry and wetlands, these potentially dangerous interferences include changes in ecosystems boundaries, loss of biodiversity, increased frequency of ecosystem disturbance by fire and insects, and loss and degradation of wetlands. Regional temperature increases, precipitation increases and decreases, change in soil moisture availability, climatic variability and the occurrence of extreme events are all likely to influence the nature of these impacts. The book is organized into five main parts.

Part 1: Climate Change and Ecosystems (Chapters 1-3). We discuss the fragility of ecosystems in the face of changing climates, particularly through human-caused increases in atmospheric GHGs. Chapter 2 details how and why the climate has changed in the past; and what can be expected to occur in the foreseeable future. The implications of climate change to agriculture, forestry and wetland ecosystems in Canada are discussed in Chapter 3, and potential adaptation responses to reduce the impacts of a changing climate are identified.

Part 2: Managed Ecosystems — State of Knowledge (Chapters 4-15). We explore what is known about the impacts of climate on our agricultural, forested and wetland ecosystems. This section illustrates the importance of terrestrial ecosystems in the global carbon cycle and focuses on discussions of the potential interaction between terrestrial and atmospheric carbon pools under changing climatic conditions. Our current understanding of the impact of climate change on food and fiber production as well as the potential role of the different ecosystems in carbon source/sink relationships has been discussed in detail here.

Part 3: Knowledge Gaps and Challenges (Chapters 16-18). We attempt to identify what needs to be known and done to ensure continued stability in these ecosystems. This part includes a description of some of the activities that have been undertaken in the past to identify gaps in our understanding of GHGs emissions from agriculture, forest and wetland and their mitigation, as well as current research initiatives to address these gaps.

Part 4: Economics and Policy Issues (Chapter 19). This provides an overview of economic reasoning applied to climate change and illustrates how terrestrial carbon-uptake credits (offset credits) operate within the Kyoto Protocol framework. Attention is focused on the potential of terrestrial carbon sinks to slow the rate of CO2 buildup in the atmosphere.

Part 5: Summary and Recommendations (Chapters 20-21). We give an overall view of the knowledge gained from the conference and identify research needs to achieve reduced atmospheric carbon levels. The first chapter (Chapter 20) synthesizes the major findings of all the previous chapters and examines the implications for different ecosystems. The second chapter (Chapter 21) identifies key knowledge gaps relating to climate and climate-change effects on agriculture, forestry, and wetlands. It further points toward the needs to make management of these ecosystems part of a global solution, by identifying gaps in the current understanding of adaptation or mitigation strategies for terrestrial ecosystems.

While we are confident that the material contained in this book will be helpful to anyone seeking up-to-date information, we are also aware that in such a rapidly evolving field it is inevitable that material will quickly become dated. With that in mind we encourage you, the reader, to contact the chapter authors for their current views and information on the topics covered.

[EBOOK] Climate Change and Managed Ecosystems, Edited by J.S. Bhatti ET AL., Published by CRC

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