2008 Volume 13 Issue 1 Pages 111-120
The majority of investigations into increased CO_2 levels are limited to studies of the photosynthesis and respiration of leaves in forest ecosystems. However, temperature increases are predicted to be greater at higher latitudes and will affect virtually all chemical and biological processes. Therefore, ecosystem responses to global warming will be complex and vary temporally and spatially, due to direct and indirect effects. Field manipulations to examine the effects of global wanning have been conducted to determine the response of entire terrestrial ecosystems to an environmental variable in a manner that mimics climate change. Such ecosystem responses result from direct and indirect effects. Unlike mathematical modeling and laboratory investigations of climate change, field manipulations have the potential to provide valuable new insights into the effects of global warming. Recently, ecologists from around the world have started to undertake field manipulations to study global warming. This paper describes 1) the indirect effects and spatial and temporal variations in the impacts of global warming, 2) various types of ecological warming methods and ecosystem responses on a global scale based on a meta-analysis, 3) recommendations for future work, and 4) a field manipulation conducted in Tomakomai Experimental Forest using electric heating cables. The experimental results should help to devise countermeasures to global warming.
