The Role of Ecosystems in Building Climate Change Resilience and Reducing Greenhouse Gases

The fourth assessment report of the Nobel-prize winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides a synthesis of hundreds of peer reviewed scientific studies and concludes that human-induced climatic change is already occurring (IPCC 2007). Observed impacts range from longer growing seasons in temperate to polar zones; changes in the timing of plant bud break, bird migrations, and egg-laying; to poleward and upward shifts in ranges in plant and animal species (IPCC 2007). Projected changes have varying degrees of associated uncertainty, but include warmer temperatures, changes in the amount and distribution and intensity of rainfall, potential changes in hurricane and cyclone frequency and intensity, fire frequency, changes in agricultural productivity, spread of temperature-related disease vectors and pests, and sea-level rise (IPCC 2007). Further evidence suggests that this climate disruption will continue for decades to centuries (Solomon et al. 2009).