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Mechanisms of vegetation response to climate change

  • Conference paper
Past and Future Rapid Environmental Changes

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASII,volume 47))

Abstract

It is deceptively easy for plant ecologists to devise predictions of how vegetation might respond to climate change. Future shifts in structure and species composition can be suggested on the basis of correlations between present day floristics and climate (Raunkiaer 1934; Holdridge 1947; Box 1981; Woodward 1992) or by reference to the palaeoecological record of vegetation response to past changes in climate (Huntley & Birks 1983, Davis et al. 1986). However, there are two main reasons to suspect that both technical and philosophical developments will be necessary before this area of research graduates from speculation to science.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NERC Unit of Comparative Plant Ecology Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, The University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK

    Philip Grime

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  1. Philip Grime
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Research Centre, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Durham, South Road, DH1 3LE, Durham, UK

    Brian Huntley  & Judy R. M. Allen  & 

  2. Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Telegrafenberg, P.O. Box 6012 03, D-14412, Potsdam, Germany

    Wolfgang Cramer

  3. Quaternary Sciences Institute, University of Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Alan V. Morgan

  4. Department of Systematic Botany, Lund University, Östra Vallgatan 18-20, S-223 61, Lund, Sweden

    Honor C. Prentice

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© 1997 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Grime, P. (1997). Mechanisms of vegetation response to climate change. In: Huntley, B., Cramer, W., Morgan, A.V., Prentice, H.C., Allen, J.R.M. (eds) Past and Future Rapid Environmental Changes. NATO ASI Series, vol 47. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60599-4_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60599-4_15

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-61877-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-60599-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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