Global Change Biology

Global Change Biology exists to promote understanding of the interface between all aspects of current environmental change that affects a substantial part of the globe and biological systems.

The journal publishes primary research articles, technical advances, research reviews, commentaries and letters.

Global Change Biology defines global change as any consistent trend in the environment - past, present or projected - that affects a substantial part of the globe. Examples include:

• rising tropospheric ozone, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide concentrations
• increasing UV-B irradiation
• global climate change
• biological sinks and sources of atmospheric trace gases
• eutrophication
• land use change
• loss of biodiversity
• biological feedback on climate change
• biological mitigation for atmospheric change

Click on the linked words to view all papers in Global Change Biology on that topic

A subscription to Global Change Biology now includes sister journal GCB Bioenergy! Don't miss out recommend to your library today!

F1000 Faculty Members Eric Post recommends the Global Change Biology article 'Rapid loss of glacial ice reveals stream community assembly processes' Click here to read the review.

F1000 Faculty Members Andrew Baird and Joana Figueiredo recommends the Global Change Biology article 'Increasing ocean temperatures allow tropical fishes to survive overwinter in temperate waters' Click here to read the review.

F1000 Faculty Member Barry Brook recommends the Global Change Biology article 'Interactions between climate and habitat loss effects on biodiversity: a systematic review and meta-analysis' Click here to read the review.

Global Change Biologyfrequently features in the news - here's the latest:

The article: Coastal retreat and improved water quality mitigate losses of seagrass from sea level rise was featured by PhysOrg

The article: Rapid climate driven shifts in wintering distributions of three common waterbird species was featured by BBC Science and itv news

The article: Beyond corals and fish: the effects of climate change on noncoral benthic invertebrates of tropical reefs was featured by UN Chronicle

The article: Spatial relationship between climatologies and changes in global vegetation activity was featured by Kitsap Sun

The article: Vulnerability of terrestrial island vertebrates to projected sea level rise was featured by Global Times and Science Blog.

The article: Anthropogenic noise decreases urban songbird diversity and may contribute to homogenization was featured by BBC Science

Read the winter issue of The Wildlife Professional free to access here. Plus read the featured Global Change Biology article 'The push and pull of climate change causes heterogeneous shifts in avian elevational ranges'.

The article 'Yield vs. Quality trade-offs for wheat in response to carbon dioxide and ozone' was featured by PhysOrg

The article 'Introduced annual grass increases regional fire activity across the arid western USA (1980–2009)' was featured in the news by the BBC

The article 'Warming and drought reduce temperature sensitivity of nitrogen transformations' was featured in the news by PhysOrg

The article 'Caribbean coral diseases: primary transmission or secondary infection?' was featured in the news by the Brevard Times and PhysOrg

The article 'Global warming threatens the persistence of Mediterranean brown trout' was featured in the news by PhysOrg and Environmental Protection.

The article 'Bio-energetics underpins the spatial response of North Sea plaice (Pleuronectes platessa L.) and sole (Solea solea L.) to climate change' was featured by the online news site PhysOrg.

The article 'Modeling the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of deforestation-driven carbon emissions: the INPE-EM framework applied to the Brazilian Amazon' was featured in the news by Nature and Mongabay.

The article 'Marine invertebrate skeleton size varies with latitude, temperature and carbonate saturation: implications for global change and ocean acidification' has been featured by the following news sites: French Tribune, Mother Nature Network, Public Service Europe, Examiner, Futurity, Global Adventures, Global Post, PhysOrg, Reuters

The review article 'Effects of climate warming on polar bears: a review of the evidence' was featured by the Edmonton Journal. Read the press release.

The article 'Soil carbon and nitrogen cycling and storage throughout the soil profile in a sweetgum plantation after 11 years of CO2-enrichment
' was featured by CO2 Science. Reas the press release.

Authors note future coral reef conditions may be worse than originally thought
We know that ocean acidification, caused by human-related increases in CO2, is a major threat to ocean ecosystems. Many methods have been undertaken to understand the complex relationship between CO2 levels and long-term ocean acidification rates. It is not quite clear how the daily local variations of conditions at coral reefs may affect estimates on long-term response to acidification. Emily Shaw and her colleagues incorporated these short-term variations into future projections and found that reef acidification is expected to be amplified beyond original estimates. Reef organisms may become more exposed to extreme fluctuations from day to day and further research is needed to study this possibility.

Accepted Article

Coping with climate change: a detailed look
Large areas over tens or hundreds of meters will experience temperature variations in many different locations and these variations may help lessen climate-change impact on species distributions. However, we know little about the effects that small and local temperature variations across a large geographical area may have on species. Using temperature estimates from a large, high-quality database on plant communities, Jonathan Lenoir and coauthors were able to provide the first broad-scale assessment of small-scale temperature differences across a wide change of terrains. They determine that even flat terrains may provide local refuge for species to cope with rapid climate change.

Accepted Article

Improving CO2 estimates
Soil respiration (Rsoil) , the production of CO2 from soil organisms, is one of the largest CO2 fluxes in the global carbon cycle. Continuous year-long data records for estimating annual Rsoil sums are generally not utilized because they contain far too many gaps of missing Rsoil values to create an accurate estimate. Many methods for gap-filling have been attempted but there is no standard procedure for producing usable estimates of Rsoil. In the latest Technical Advance from GCB, Nuria Gomez-Casanovas and coauthors tested the reliability of various gap-filling techniques. This analysis provides guidance to find the best techniques for estimating reliable annual Rsoil sums and may have important implications for understanding the role of Rsoil in the global carbon cycle.

Accepted Article