biomes

EMSAfrica

A South Africa - Germany collaboration to understand the impacts of land-use and climate change on South African terrestrial ecosystems

An operational definition of the biome for global change research

[Access the paper here.](http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.16580) Biomes are constructs for organising knowledge on the structure and functioning of the world's ecosystems, and serve as useful units for monitoring how the biosphere responds to …

African biomes are most sensitive to changes in CO2 under recent and near-future CO2 conditions

[Access the paper here.](https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-1147-2020) Current rates of climate and atmospheric change are likely higher than during the last millions of years. Even higher rates of change are projected in CMIP5 climate model ensemble runs …

Altered ignition catchments threaten a hyperdiverse fire-dependent ecosystem

[Access the paper here.](https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14861) Human activities affect fire in many ways, often unintentionally or with considerable time-lags before they manifest themselves. Anticipating these changes is critical, so that insidious …

Defining functional biomes and monitoring their change globally

[Access the paper here.](https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13367) Biomes are important constructs for organizing understanding of how the worlds' major terrestrial ecosystems differ from one another and for monitoring change in these ecosystems. Yet …

The future distribution of the savannah biome: model-based and biogeographic contingency

[Access the paper here.](https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0311) The extent of the savannah biome is expected to be profoundly altered by climatic change and increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Contrasting projections are given when using …

Maintenance of species integrity in the context of a recent radiation: the case of Jamesbrittenia (Scrophulariaceae: Limoselleae) in southern Africa

[Access the paper here](https://doi.org/10.1111/boj.12447) Incomplete post-zygotic isolation poses challenges for the maintenance of species integrity in recently radiated lineages. An example is Jamesbrittenia, a southern African-centred genus, the …

Revising the biome concept for understanding and predicting global change impacts

[Access the paper here.](https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.12701) Biomes are globally distributed, structurally and functionally similar vegetation units defined without reference to plant species composition. The boundaries between biomes are presumed to …

Understanding global change impacts on South African biomes using Dynamic Vegetation Models

[Access the paper here.](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2015.02.004) The distribution of South African biomes is expected to be drastically altered as a result of climatic change and increasing atmospheric CO2 in the 21st century. Developing the …

An operational framework for biome boundary research with examples from South Africa

[Access the paper here.](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2015.07.002) Understanding the ecology of biome boundaries is important in both pure and applied research. Here we develop an operational framework that categorises biome boundary research into …