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• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Global warming
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.420.1203; http://www.lter.uaf.edu/pdf/1062_apps_mcguire.pdf

The extreme environmental events that have occurred around the globe over the last few years, such as the recent hurricane in the Gulf Coast of the United States, the heat waves and prolonged drought in Europe, the tsunami in Southeast Asia, and widespread flooding remind us of how vulnerable human society is to variations in environmental conditions. While not all of these events are attributable to humaninduced changes in the environment, they should serve as warnings about the potential impacts of our activities on the global climate. Boreal and arctic ecosystems are particularly sensitive to global warming but also play an important part in the feedback pathways of the Earth system that determine the dynamics of the climate system. Disturbances are especially important in the dynamics of these ecosystems, and alterations in climatic conditions, whether human-induced or due to natural variability, have an important influence on the disturbance regime. The Climate–Disturbance Interactions in