Global Change and Ecological Complexity: A Two Workshop Proposal

[9634876]萨拉：该小组提出的两个研讨会将促进美洲国家在生物多样性和全球变化研究领域的合作努力，以先前在全球变化背景下解决生物多样性问题的两个项目——DIVERSITAS和环境问题科学委员会（SCOPE）生物多样性生态系统功能项目——的工作为基础。因为这是一个非常新的生态领域，没有普遍接受的原则。关于生态复杂性和功能之间相互作用的许多新假设已经提出，但没有全面的协调来验证它们。全球变化和陆地生态系统（GCTE）是国际地圈-生物圈计划（IGBP）的一个核心项目，它将生态复杂性和功能作为其重点研究领域之一，美洲全球变化研究所（IAI）也是如此。这些研讨会将联合讨论GCTE和IAI关于这一主题的研究议程。第一次研讨会将根据目前可获得的政府间气候变化专门委员会（IPCC）的气候、大气成分和土地利用变化情景，制定未来50至100年生物多样性变化情景。这些生物多样性情景将类似于IPCC的情景，并可构成有关生物多样性影响和缓解的政策决定的基础。第二个研讨会将在实验、观测和理论研究的基础上制定一个合作研究计划，以确定生态复杂性对生态系统功能的潜在影响的强度和普遍性。这次研讨会为科学家们提供了一个机会，在美洲开展新的研究，与主要的全球和区域研究项目密切协调。研讨会将制定一项研究计划，以检查生态系统中发现的多样性与生态系统执行的功能之间的关系。了解这些关系将有助于决策者评估影响，并制定政策以减轻全球变化的影响。这些研讨会由美国国家生态系统分析与综合中心（NCEAS）和美国国家科学基金会（NSF）代表美洲全球变化研究所（IAI）共同主办。IAI是美国的一项倡议，旨在促进美洲科学机构在全球变化问题上的合作研究。美国国家科学基金会是白宫指定的在IAI中履行美国职责的主要美国政府机构。＊＊＊

9634876 Sala The two workshops proposed by this group will foster cooperative efforts among countries of the Americas in the area of biodiversity and global change research, building upon the previous work of two programs that addressed biodiversity within a global change context - DIVERSITAS, and the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) Program on Ecosystem Functioning of Biodiversity. Because this is a very new area of ecological interest, there are no generally accepted principles. Many new hypotheses about the interaction between ecological complexity and function have been advanced, but no overall coordination exists to test them. Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE) a core project of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) has selected ecological complexity and function as one of its areas of focus, as has the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI). These workshops will jointly address the GCTE and IAI research agendas for this topic. The first workshop will develop scenarios of biodiversity change over the next fifty to one hundred years, based on currently available Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) climate, atmospheric composition and land-use change scenarios. These biodiversity scenarios would be analogous to the IPCC scenarios, and could form the basis for policy decisions regarding biodiversity impact and mitigation. The second workshop will develop a cooperative research program, based on an integrated set of experimental, observational, and theoretical studies to determine the strength and generality of potential effects of ecological complexity on ecosystem function. %%% This workshop provides an opportunity for scientists to develop new research in the Americas that is tightly coordinated with major global and regional research programs. The workshops will develop a research program to examine the relationships between the diversity found in an ecosystem and the functions that the eco system performs. Understanding these relationships will aid decision-makers in assessing impacts, and designing policies to mitigate the effects of global change. These workshop are being co-sponsored by the National Center for Ecosystem Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) on behalf of the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI). The IAI is a U.S. initiative to stimulate cooperative research on global change issues among the scientific institutions of the Americas. The National Science Foundation is the lead U.S. Government agency designated by the White House to carry out U.S. responsibilities within the IAI. ***