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Land-Use and Land-Cover Change (LUCC): Implementation Strategy

Description: The Implementation Strategy of the Land-Use and Land-Cover Change (LUCC) project specifies in greater detail the activities and projects that will fulfil the mandate outlined in the LUCC Science/Research Plan published in 1995. The project, a joint initiative of IGBP and IHDP, is addressing important global change questions on the local, regional and global scale. The planned and ongoing activities involve a wide community of natural and social scientists. The new understanding of land-use and … more
Date: 1999
Creator: Scientific Steering Committee and International Project Office of LUCC
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Global Change and Mountain Regions: The Mountain Research Initiative

Description: The strong altitudinal gradients in mountain regions provide unique and sometimes the best opportunities to detect and analyse global change processes and phenomena. Meteorological, hydrological, cryospheric and ecological conditions change strongly over relatively short distances; thus biodiversity tends to be high, and characteristic sequences of ecosystems and cryospheric systems are found along mountain slopes. The boundaries between these systems experience shifts due to environmental chan… more
Date: 2001
Creator: Bekcer, Alfred & Bugmann, Harald
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Past Global Changes (PAGES) Status Report and Implementation Plan

Description: This document summarizes progress made thus far by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) programme element of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP). The document also outlines the implementation plans for most of the Foci, Activities and Tasks currently within the PAGES remit. The plan first introduces the scope and rationale of PAGES science and explains how PAGES is organized structurally and scientifically to achieve its goals. For all of the palaeosciences relevant to IGBP goals,… more
Date: 1998
Creator: Oldfield, Frank
Partner: UNT Libraries
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The Terrestrial Biosphere and Global Change: Implications for Natural and Managed Ecosystems

Description: From the perspective of terrestrial ecosystems, the most important component of global change over the next three or four decades will likely be land-use/cover change. It is driven largely by the need to feed the expanding human population, expected to increase by almost one billion (109) people per decade for the next three decades at least. Much of this increase will occur in developing countries in the low-latitude regions of the world. To meet the associated food demand, crop yields will ne… more
Date: 1997
Creator: Walker, Brian & Steffen, WIll
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Environmental Variability and Climate Change

Description: The PAGES research community works toward improving our understanding of the Earth's changing environment. By placing current and future global changes in a long term perspective, they can be assessed relative to natural variability. Since the industrial revolution, the Earth System has become increasingly affected by human activities. Natural and human processes are woven into a complex tapestry of forcings, responses, feedbacks and consequences. Deciphering this complexity is essential as we… more
Date: 2001
Creator: Past Global Changes (PAGES)
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Global Change and the Earth System: A planet under pressure

Description: The PAGES research community works toward improving our understanding of the Earth's changing environment. By placing current and future global changes in a long term perspective, they can be assessed relative to natural variability. Since the industrial revolution, the Earth System has become increasingly affected by human activities. Natural and human processes are woven into a complex tapestry of forcings, responses, feedbacks and consequences. Deciphering this complexity is essential as we… more
Date: 2001
Creator: Global Environmental Change Programmes
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Marine Ecosystems and Global Change

Description: The ocean is a vital component of the metabolism of the Earth and plays a key role in global change. In fact, the oceans cover so much of the Earth's surface that our planet has been described as the Water Planet, and it could be argued that its most extensive ecosystems are marine. Marine ecosystems are inextricably involved in the physical, chemical, biological and societal processes of global change. It is impossible to describe and understand the Earth system without understanding the ocean… more
Date: 2003
Creator: Global Ocean Ecosystem Dynamics Project (GLOBEC)
Partner: UNT Libraries

Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation [Map]

Description: The Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map shows the types of vegetation that occur across the Arctic, between the ice-covered Arctic Ocean to the north and the northern limit of forests to the south. Environmental and climatic conditions are extreme, with a short growing season and low summer temperatures. As one moves southward (outward from map's center in all directions), the amount of warmth available for plant growth increases considerably.
Date: 2003
Creator: CAVM Team
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Thresholds of Climate Change in Ecosystems

Description: This Report (SAP 4.2) focuses on the thresholds of Climate Change in Ecosystems. As defined in this Synthesis and Assessment Report, 'an ecological threshold is the point at which there is an abrupt change in an ecosystem quality, property, or phenomenon, or where small changes in one or more external conditions produce large and persistent responses in an ecosystem'.Ecological thresholds occur when external factors, positive feedbacks, or nonlinear instabilities in a system cause changes to pr… more
Date: January 2009
Creator: U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture, Land Resources, Water Resources, and Biodiversity in the United States

Description: This document is a part of the Synthesis and Assessment Products described in the U.S. Climate Change Science Program Strategic Plan. The report describes how climate affects the design, construction, safety, operations, and maintenance of transportation infrastructure and systems. The prospect of a changing climate raises critical questions regarding how alterations in temperature, precipitation, storm events, and other aspects of the climate could affect the nation's roads, airports, rail, tr… more
Date: May 2008
Creator: U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research.
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Preliminary Review of Adaptation Options for Climate-Sensitive Ecosystems and Resources

Description: The U.S. Government's Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) is responsible for providing the best science-based knowledge possible to inform management of the risks and opportunities associated with changes in the climate and related environmental systems. To support its mission, the CCSP has commissioned 21 "synthesis and assessment products" (SAPs) to advance decision making on climate change-related issues by providing current evaluations of climate change science and identifying priorities … more
Date: June 2008
Creator: U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Biodiversity Of Southernmost Forests And Tundra Ecosystems

Description: Article discussing research on the biodiversity of the dominant vegetation in the world's southernmost forests and tundra ecosystems.
Date: October 26, 2007
Creator: Rozzi, Ricardo, 1960-; Massardo, Francisca; Anderson, Christopher B.; Armesto, Juan J., 1953-; Goffinet, Bernard; Silander, John August, 1945- et al.
Partner: UNT College of Arts and Sciences
open access

Climate Change: Financing Global Forests

Description: According to the Office of Climate Change press release, the Eliasch Review aims to provide an analysis of international financing to reduce forest loss and its associated impacts on climate change. The focus related to the international efforts to achieve a new global climate change agreement in Copenhagen in 2009. The Eliasch Review focuses on the financing required to produce significant reductions in forest carbon emissions. It also examines how mechanisms to address forest loss can reduc… more
Date: 2008
Creator: Eliasch, Johan
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Planning Climate and Global Change Research: A Review of the Draft U.S. Climate Change Science Program Strategic Plan

Description: A draft strategic plan for the Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) was released to the scientific community and the public in November 2002. At the request of the CCSP, the National Academies formed a committee to review this draft strategic plan; the results of this review are reported herein.
Date: 2003
Creator: Committee to Review the U.S. Climate Change Science Program Strategic Plan
Partner: UNT Libraries
open access

Climate Change 1995: IPCC Second Assessment Report

Description: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) completed its Second Assessment Report in December 1995. The major conclusions are that greenhouse gas concentrations are increasing, the global climate has been changing, and will likely continue to change, probably due to human influence.
Date: 1995
Creator: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Social Network Approaches to Urban and Regional Carbon Management 5-7 April, 2005, Tsukuba, Japan

Description: This proceedings provides possible answer to the question of what social network analysis can contribute to addressing the problem of climate change. In the workshop, social scientists from Japan, the USA, and Europe reported on social network theory, applications and methodology to envision their use for on-the-ground social change regarding carbon management. The earth has always cycled carbon in the atmosphere (mainly as CO2); in the oceans (surface, intermediate waters, deep waters and mari… more
Date: January 15, 2006
Creator: Scholz, Stephen; Canan, Penelope & Yamagata, Yoshiki
Partner: UNT Libraries
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DIVERSITAS Science Plan

Description: This Science Plan is mainly concerned with the current extinction crisis on Earth, which, unlike its predecessors, is occurring at an unprecedented rate, is the direct result of human activities and is occurring at all levels at which diversity is measured - from the genetic diversity of many natural and domesticated species to the diversity of ecosystems and landscapes, through the tremendous richness of species. Current human-induced rates of species extinction are estimated to be about 1,000… more
Date: September 2002
Creator: DIVERSITAS
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Global Environmental Change and Human Health: Science Plan and Implementation Strategy

Description: It is widely, often intuitively, understood that human societies and the well being and health of their populations depend on the flow of materials, services and cultural enrichment from the natural world. Nevertheless, to date there has been little formal description and study of the relationships between global environmental changes and human health, and of the ways in which social institutions and processes modulate those relationships. For several human-induced global environmental changes,… more
Date: 2006
Creator: Global Environmental Change and Human Health
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Report of Planning Workshop on MAIRS Mountain Zone Implementation

Description: Monsoon Asia Integrated Regional Study (MAIRS) is an IRS research program over monsoon Asia under START and the Earth System Science Partnership (ESSP). It was established to address questions about the coupled human and environment system in the monsoon Asia region. The vision of MAIRS is to significantly advance understanding of the interactions between the human and natural components of the overall environment in the monsoon Asian region and implications for the global earth system, in orde… more
Date: June 2007
Creator: Manton, Michael & Ailikun
Partner: UNT Libraries
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Our Changing Planet: The FY 2002 U.S. Global Change Research Program

Description: This document, which is produced annually, describes the activities and plans of the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), which was established in 1989 and authorized by Congress in the Global Change Research Act of 1990. Strong bipartisan support for this inter-agency program has resulted in more than a decade's worth of scientific accomplishment. "Because there is considerable uncertainty in current understanding of how the climate system varies naturally and reacts to emissions of g… more
Date: September 2001
Creator: Subcommittee on Global Change Research, Committee on Environment and Natural Resources of the National Science and Technology Council
Partner: UNT Libraries
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