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Title: Climate change, vegetation dynamics, and the landscape water balance 1836

Author
item HUXMAN, T. - UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA
item Scott, Russell - Russ

Submitted to: Southwest Hydrology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/5/2005
Publication Date: 1/15/2007
Citation: Huxman, T.E., Scott, R.L. 2007. Climate change, vegetation dynamics, and the landscape water balance. Southwest Hydrology 6: 28-30.

Interpretive Summary: Carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has increased by over 100 parts per million since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, resulting in one of the most unambiguous effects of human activities on the globe. While rising CO2 concentration has implications for atmospheric temperature change due to its greenhouse gas characteristics, it also has significant ramifications for how vegetation functions on landscapes and its ecohydrological consequences. Therefore, a large effort over the past decade has aimed at understanding the coupled ecological and hydrological responses to global change, such as rising CO2 concentrations, temperatures, and alterations in precipitation. Of these, numerous studies have focused solely on how plants and ecosystems may respond to this change in atmospheric composition, giving us confidence to predict vegetation change in the face of predicted future CO2 concentrations and potential feedbacks of the biosphere on the atmospheric change.

Technical Abstract: Carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has increased by over 100 parts per million since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, resulting in one of the most unambiguous effects of human activities on the globe. While rising CO2 concentration has implications for atmospheric temperature change due to its greenhouse gas characteristics, it also has significant ramifications for how vegetation functions on landscapes and its ecohydrological consequences. Therefore, a large effort over the past decade has aimed at understanding the coupled ecological and hydrological responses to global change, such as rising CO2 concentrations, temperatures, and alterations in precipitation. Of these, numerous studies have focused solely on how plants and ecosystems may respond to this change in atmospheric composition, giving us confidence to predict vegetation change in the face of predicted future CO2 concentrations and potential feedbacks of the biosphere on the atmospheric change.