The impacts of climate change on ecosystem structure and function

Recent climate-change research largely confirms the impacts on US ecosystems identified in the 2009 National Climate Assessment and provides greater mechanistic understanding and geographic specificity for those impacts. Pervasive climate-change impacts on ecosystems are those that affect productivi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in ecology and the environment 2013-11, Vol.11 (9), p.474-482
Main Authors: Grimm, Nancy B, Chapin, F Stuart, Bierwagen, Britta, Gonzalez, Patrick, Groffman, Peter M, Luo, Yiqi, Melton, Forrest, Nadelhoffer, Knute, Pairis, Amber, Raymond, Peter A, Schimel, Josh, Williamson, Craig E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biomes
carbon dioxide
climate
Climate change
Ecosystems
environmental impact
Forest ecosystems
forests
Freshwater ecosystems
Global warming
hydrologic cycle
ice
insects
lakes
Lentic systems
Marine ecosystems
methane
nutrients
permafrost
Reviews
Species
Terrestrial ecosystems
thawing
wetlands
wildfires
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Summary:Recent climate-change research largely confirms the impacts on US ecosystems identified in the 2009 National Climate Assessment and provides greater mechanistic understanding and geographic specificity for those impacts. Pervasive climate-change impacts on ecosystems are those that affect productivity of ecosystems or their ability to process chemical elements. Loss of sea ice, rapid warming, and higher organic inputs affect marine and lake productivity, while combined impacts of wildfire and insect outbreaks decrease forest productivity, mostly in the arid and semi-arid West. Forests in wetter regions are more productive owing to warming. Shifts in species ranges are so extensive that by 2100 they may alter biome composition across 5-20% of US land area. Accelerated losses of nutrients from terrestrial ecosystems to receiving waters are caused by both winter warming and intensification of the hydrologic cycle. Ecosystem feedbacks, especially those associated with release of carbon dioxide and methane release from wetlands and thawing permafrost soils, magnify the rate of climate change.
ISSN:1540-9295
1540-9309
DOI:10.1890/120282