Large-scale experimentation allows scientists to test the specific responses of ecosystems to changing environmental conditions. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory together with other Federal and University scientists conducted a large-scale climatic change experiment at the Walker Branch Watershed in Tennessee, a model upland hardwood forest in North America. This volume synthesizes mechanisms of forest ecosystem response to changing hydrologic budgets associated with climatic change drivers. The authors explain the implications of changes at both the plant and stand levels, and they extrapolate the data to ecosystem-level responses, such as changes in nutrient cycling, biodiversity and carbon sequestration. In analyzing data, they also discuss similarities and differences with other temperate deciduous forests. Source data for the experiment has been archived by the authors in the U.S. Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center (CDIAC) for future analysis and modeling by independent investigators.

Large-scale experimentation allows scientists to test the specific responses of ecosystems to changing environmental conditions. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory together with other Federal and University scientists conducted a large-scale climatic change experiment at the Walker Branch Watershed in Tennessee, a model upland hardwood forest in North America. This volume synthesizes mechanisms of forest ecosystem response to changing hydrologic budgets associated with climatic change drivers. The authors explain the implications of changes at both the plant and stand levels, and they extrapolate the data to ecosystem-level responses, such as changes in nutrient cycling, biodiversity and carbon sequestration. In analyzing data, they also discuss similarities and differences with other temperate deciduous forests. Source data for the experiment has been archived by the authors in the U.S. Department of Energy's Carbon Dioxide Information and Analysis Center (CDIAC) for future analysis and modeling by independent investigators.

This volume in the Greenwood Guides to Biomes of the World series covers the vast forest that cover much of North America and similar regions. The volume covers the three major types of temperate forest biomes: boreal forests (e.g. the evergreen forests of the Pacific Northwest), Temperate Broadleaf Deciduous Forest, and Mediterranean Woodland and Scrub, examining all aspects that define these biomes: • Vegetation • Geographical Distribution • Soil • Challenges posed by the environment • Adaptation of the plants and animals to the environment • Conservation efforts, maps, photos, diagrams, drawings, and tables accompany the text, as do sidebars that highlight habitats, species, and ecological relationships The volume includes a bibliography of accessible resources for further research.

This assessment provides input to the reauthorized National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and the National Climate Assessment (NCA), and it establishes the scientific foundation needed to manage for drought resilience and adaptation. Focal areas include drought characterization; drought impacts on forest processes and disturbances such as insect outbreaks and wildfire; and consequences for forest and rangeland values. Drought can be a severe natural disaster with substantial social and economic consequences. Drought becomes most obvious when large-scale changes are observed; however, even moderate drought can have long-lasting impacts on the structure and function of forests and rangelands without these obvious large-scale changes. Large, stand-level impacts of drought are already underway in the West, but all U.S. forests are vulnerable to drought. Drought-associated forest disturbances are expected to increase with climatic change. Management actions can either mitigate or exacerbate the effects of drought. A first principal for increasing resilience and adaptation is to avoid management actions that exacerbate the effects of current or future drought. Options to mitigate drought include altering structural or functional components of vegetation, minimizing drought-mediated disturbance such as wildfire or insect outbreaks, and managing for reliable flow of water.

In the summer of 2003, a workshop was held in Portsmouth, NH, to discuss land measurement techniques for the North American Carbon Program. Over 40 sci- tists representing government agencies, academia and nonprofit research organi- tions located in Canada, the US and Mexico participated. During the course of the workshop a number of topics were discussed, with an emphasis on the following: • The need for an intermediate tier of carbon measurements. This level of study would be more extensive than state-level inventories of the US Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis Program, but less detailed than intensive ecos- tem studies sites such as those in Long Term Ecological Research network. This tier would ideally provide a basis to link and scale remote sensing measurements and inventory data, and supply data required to parameterize existing models (see Wofsy and Harriss 2002, Denning et al. 2005). • The design criteria that such a network of sites should meet. The network and s- pling design should be standardized, but flexible enough to be applied across North America. The design also needs to be efficient enough to be implemented without the need for large field crews, yet robust enough to provide useful information. Finally, the spatial scale must permit easy linkage to remotely sensed data. • The key variables that should be measured at each site, and the frequency of measurement.

Temperate forests cover large areas of Europe and perform a number of important functions such as the regulation of energy and matter, production of wood and other resources, and conservation of biodiversity and habitats; they also have special signi?cance in social and cultural contexts. Initiated in 1960s, the ?rst International Biological Program (IBP) focused on ‘‘the biological basis of productivity and human welfare. ’’ As the German contribution to the IBP, ecosystem research has been carried out since 1966 in the Solling area (Ellenberg H. , Ecological Studies 2, 1971), an upland region in Northwest Germany. This study provided clear evidence that the stability of forest ecosystems was threatened by the high inputs of at- spheric pollutants. This promoted many interdisciplinary research programs which were coordinated by Prof. Dr. Bernhard Ulrich and the Forest Ecosystems Research Center of the University of Go ̈ttingen. This involved, in addition to the Solling site, the establishment of two other sites for long-term monitoring of ecosystem pro- ̈ cesses. The two contrasting sites were established in 1980 at Gottinger Wald on base-rich calcareous soil and in 1989 at Zierenberg on volcanic soil. These projects were funded initially by the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology (BMBF) as interdisciplinary projects under the titles: ‘‘Conditions of Stability of Forest Ecosystems’’ (1989–1993), and ‘‘Dynamics of Forest Ecos- tems’’ (1993–1998). The primary goal of these studies was to quantify the ecolo- cal condition of forests in a changing environment and element ?uxes.

The U.S. Climate Change Science Program (CCSP) coordinates the efforts of 13 federal agencies to understand why climate is changing, to improve predictions about how it will change in the future, and to use that information to assess impacts on human systems and ecosystems and to better support decision making. Evaluating Progress of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program is the first review of the CCSP's progress since the program was established in 2002. It lays out a method for evaluating the CCSP, and uses that method to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the entire program and to identify areas where progress has not met expectations. The committee found that the program has made good progress in documenting and understanding temperature trends and related environmental changes on a global scale, as well as in understanding the influence of human activities on these observed changes. The ability to predict future climate changes also has improved, but efforts to understand the impacts of such changes on society and analyze mitigation and adaptation strategies are still relatively immature. The program also has not met expectations in supporting decision making, studying regional impacts, and communicating with a wider group of stakeholders.

Carbon stored in soils represents the largest terrestrial carbon pool and factors affecting this will be vital in the understanding of future atmospheric CO2 concentrations. This book provides an integrated view on measuring and modeling soil carbon dynamics. Based on a broad range of in-depth contributions by leading scientists it gives an overview of current research concepts, developments and outlooks and introduces cutting-edge methodologies, ranging from questions of appropriate measurement design to the potential application of stable isotopes and molecular tools. It includes a standardised soil CO2 efflux protocol, aimed at data consistency and inter-site comparability and thus underpins a regional and global understanding of soil carbon dynamics. This book provides an important reference work for students and scientists interested in many aspects of soil ecology and biogeochemical cycles, policy makers, carbon traders and others concerned with the global carbon cycle.

In North America, Juniperus woodlands occupy approximately 55 million hectares, an area larger than the state of Texas. This title addresses various aspects of the biology, ecology, and management of Juniperus woodlands and savannas, synthesizing past and current research findings as well as proposed research. The book provides ecologists, land managers, and foresters with a solid foundation in Juniperus ecosystems, enabling them to manage the communities for maximum sustained productivity and diversity.