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Modeling the Possible Impact of Climate Change on Broad-Scale Vegetation Structure: Examples from Northern Europe

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Global Change and Arctic Terrestrial Ecosystems

Part of the book series: Ecological Studies ((ECOLSTUD,volume 124))

Abstract

Climate has long been recognized as a major determinant of vegetation structure and composition (Woodward, 1987). Changes in climate, such as ambient temperature or the availability of light and moisture, are therefore likely to change vegetation on a relatively short time scale, such as years to decades. In fact, the connection between climate and vegetation has been considered so close that knowledge of past vegetation composition, derived from pollen, macrofossils, or other sources, could be used to reconstruct historical climatic patterns by analysis of the correlation between the presence of certain species and the climatic conditions. The key concepts that were developed for such paleoecological reconstruction have provided valuable contributions to the more recent development of predictive modeling of climate-vegetation interactions (see Huntley, Chapter 15).

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Authors
  1. Wolfgang Cramer
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Global Change Research Group, San Diego State University, 92182, San Diego, CA, USA

    Walter C. Oechel

  2. Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, Sheffield Centre for Arctic Ecology, University of Sheffield, S1D 5BR, Sheffield, UK

    Terry V. Callaghan

  3. Department of Vertebrate Zoology and General Ecology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

    Tagir G. Gilmanov

  4. Arctic Adaptation Division, Canadian Climate Centre, Downsview, Ontario, Canada

    Barrie Maxwell

  5. Department of Systematic Botany, University of Göteborg, S-413 19, Göteborg, Sweden

    Ulf Molau

  6. Institute of Biology, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland

    Bjartmar Sveinbjörnsson

  7. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alaska, 99775, Anchorage, AK, USA

    Bjartmar Sveinbjörnsson

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© 1997 Springer-Verlag New York, Inc.

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Cramer, W. (1997). Modeling the Possible Impact of Climate Change on Broad-Scale Vegetation Structure: Examples from Northern Europe. In: Oechel, W.C., et al. Global Change and Arctic Terrestrial Ecosystems. Ecological Studies, vol 124. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2240-8_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2240-8_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7468-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-2240-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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