Biodiversity, Temperate Ecosystems, and Global Change: Introduction to the NATO Advanced Research Workshop

Abstract

In the second half of the 20th century, the burgeoning global human population, combined with dramatic developments in the power of human technology, has resulted in an immense increase in the impacts of human activities on the global environment. Huge, self-contained factory ships have replaced small, local fishing vessels; in place of axes and chainsaws, feller-buncher vehicles now work 24 hours a day harvesting forests; and new varieties of agricultural crops allow clearance of land previously unsuitable for agriculture. Thankfully, technological developments have also produced more rapid, more comprehensive, and more dramatic images of the extent of human impacts. Only with the advent of satellite images has the enormous extent of deforestation and erosion become obvious, and it is only with modern computing power that Global Circulation Models can be used to make predictions of future climates.