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Climate change and vegetation response

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Abstract

This study, as many other current investigations in palaeoecology is focused on the long-term dynamics of vegetation and the extent to which they are controlled by climate change. Climate and classes of climate change are defined and reviewed, and examples cited of vegetation response. The concepts of vegetation, plant community and equilibrium are examined, with particular emphasis on theories on short term dynamics developed by ecologists working with temperate and boreal forests. Vegetation response to climate change can be modified by anthropogenic factors, topographic diversity and soils, life-cycle characteristics and hysteresis.

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  1. University of Toronto, Scarborough Campus, MIC IA4, Scarborough, Ontario, Canada

    J. C. Ritchie

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I am grateful for comments on an earlier version of this paper by Keith Bennett, Les Cwynar and Glen MacDonald, and I particularly appreciate the useful remarks by Colin Prentice.

I am grateful for comments on an earlier version of this paper by Keith Bennett, Les Cwynar and Glen MacDonald, and I particularly appreciate the useful remarks by Colin Prentice.

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Ritchie, J.C. Climate change and vegetation response. Vegetatio 67, 65–74 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00037358

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