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Home |ILTER
What is Global
Change Research?
Earth's climate, biota,
and ecosystems are changing constantly, and they have been changing
since life began billions of years ago. Only recently,
though, have we begun to understand how these changes are regulated
on a global scale. Some of the most exciting scientific
discoveries of recent decades have shown us how physical, geological,
chemical, biological, and human processes all interact with
each other to control this never-ending process of global change.
Global Change Research
is an attempt to increase understanding of those processes and
interactions that regulate the total Earth system, and of their
cumulative effects on the future of our planet.The study of Global
Change is particularly important as it is now clear that human
social and economic activities around the world are having an
impact that can be measured at the level of the entire Earth and
its atmosphere, oceans, and land surface. Human activities are
probably the most rapidly changing component among the major regulators
of the Earth system, and may—in the future—play a dominant
role in the regulation of global climate, global biogeochemistry,
and the diversity and stability of global ecosystems.
Why is it important?
"Our planet and global
environment are witnessing the most profound changes in the brief
history of the human species. Human activity is the major agent
of those changes —depletion of stratospheric ozone, the threat
of global warming, deforestation, acid precipitation, the extinction
of species, and others that have not become apparent."
Excerpted from the 1989 report of the National
Research Council, ‘Global Change and Our Common Future’
Humans manage much of the Earth
system, and their management role is certain to increase in the
future.Yet this management of the whole Earth is not always acknowledged,
much less clearly understood. It is incumbent upon humans
to understand how their actions have global effects, and to use
that understanding to manage their impacts at the global as well
as the local level. For this reason, Global Change Research
is a high national and international scientific priority.
Global Change with the LTER
Network
LTER sites are windows to global change. As Observatories,
LTER sites serve to document long-term changes in plants, animals,
microbes, and soils in relation to long-term climate and short-term
weather changes. As locations for long-term experiments,
LTER sites illuminate interactions among the physical, chemical,
and biological components of ecosystems through controlled manipulations.
As representatives of global biodiversity, LTER sites allow comparisons
of the relative sensitivity of populations, communities, and ecosystems
to environmental change. Finally, synthesis and modeling
of results from LTER sites provides predictions of feedbacks,
both positive and negative, on global change. Research at
LTER sites spans the range from relatively less-managed landscapes
such as arctic tundras, to intensively managed cities and farmlands.
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