GC TE
Home Overview of Focus 4 Networks Benefits and Commitments Data and Model Sharing Policy Activities and Tasks Research Highlights Meetings and Events Directory Sitemap   Contact details: GCTE Focus 4 Pablo Inchausti (Scientific Officer) Laboratoire d'Ecologie Ecole Normale Superieure 46 rue d'Ulm Paris 75005 France Tel: (+33) 1.44.32.23.16 Fax: (+33) 1.44.32.38.85	Overview of Focus 4 GCTE Focus 4 aims to link two major areas of ecological research that have worked largely independently thus far: global change and biodiversity. Changes in land use, atmospheric composition, and global climate directly affect biodiversity and could consequently affect ecosystem functioning. How important are the direct and indirect effects of global change phenomena on ecosystem functioning? How much and what kind of biodiversity can be changed before observing significant changes in ecosystem functioning? Will changes in biodiversity and consequent changes in ecosystem functioning lead to feedbacks for further global change? Finding adequate answers to these questions is of paramount importance for understanding the consequences that global change of terrestrial ecosystem has for the provision goods and services at global, regional and local scales. The main goals of GCTE Focus 4 are: to determine the relationship biodiversity and ecosystem functioning across types of ecosystem and among their functional components (animal, plants and microbes). to evaluate the degree to which global change phenomena interact to affect changes in biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. to determine the extent to which landscape processes such as land use changes and patterns of disturbance are affected by global change and how these changes affect ecosystem functioning. to elucidate major consequences of global change on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning for policy and resource management.
Home Overview of Focus 4 Networks Benefits Policy Research Highlights Events Activities and Tasks Directory Sitemap