Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change (2005) DOI:10.1007/s11027-005-9021-6 FOREWORD: CLIMATE-DISTURBANCE INTERACTIONS IN BOREAL

• Main Author: Forest Ecosystems
• 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=10.1.1.420.926; http://www.lter.uaf.edu/pdf/1066_mcguire_apps.pdf

Extreme environmental events 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 flooding in many different places remind us how vulnerable human society is to variations in environmental conditions. While not all of these events are attributable to human-induced change, they should serve as warnings about the potential climatic impacts of our activities. Boreal and Arctic ecosystems are particularly sensitive to global warming and at the same time 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 part of nature’s variability, have an important influence on the disturbance regime. The conference “Climate-Disturbance Interactions in