Evidence grows daily of the changing climate and its impact onplants and animals. Plant function is inextricably linked toclimate and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. On theshortest and smallest scales, the climate affects the plant'simmediate environment and so directly influences physiologicalprocesses. At larger scales, the climate influences speciesdistribution and community composition, as well as the viability ofdifferent crops in managed ecosystems. Plant growth also influencesthe local, regional and global climate, through the exchanges ofenergy and gases between the plants and the air around them.Plant Growth and Climate Change examines the majoraspects of how anthropogenic climate change affects plants,focusing on several key determinants of plant growth: atmosphericCO2, temperature, water availability and the interactions betweenthese factors. The book demonstrates the variety of techniques usedacross plant science: detailed physiology in controlledenvironments; observational studies based on long-term data sets;field manipulation experiments and modelling. It is directed atadvanced-level university students, researchers and professionalsacross the range of plant science disciplines, including plantphysiology, plant ecology and crop science. It will also be ofinterest to earth system scientists.

List of Contributors.Preface.1. Recent and future climate change and its implications forplant growth.David Viner, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia,Norwich, UK, James I.L. Morison, Department of Biological Sciences,University of Essex, Colchester, UK and Craig Wallace, ClimaticResearch Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.2. Plant responses to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide.Lewis H. Ziska and James A. Bunce, Crop Systems and GlobalChange, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, Maryland, USA.3. The significance of temperature in plant life.Christian Körner, Institute of Botany, University of Basel,Basel, Switzerland.4. Temperature and plant development: phenology andseasonality.Annette Menzel, Department of Ecology, Technical University ofMunich, Germany and Tim Sparks, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology,Huntingdon, UK.5. Responses of plant growth and functioning to changes in watersupply in a changing climate.William J. Davies, Department of Biological Sciences, LancasterEnvironment Centre, University of Lancaster, UK.6. Water availability and productivity.João S. Pereira, Maria-Manuela Chaves,Maria-Conceição Caldeira and Alexandre V. Correia,mInstituto Superior de Agronomia, Lisboa, Portugal.7. Effects of temperature and precipitation changes on plantcommunities.M. D. Morecroft, NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology,Wallingford, UK and J.S. Paterson, Environmental Change Institute,Oxford University Centre for the Environment, Oxford, UK.8. Issues in modelling plant ecosystem responses to elevatedCO2: interactions with soil nitrogen.Ying-Ping Wang, CSIRO Atmospheric Research, Aspendale, Victoria,Australia and Ross McMurtrie, Belinda Medlyn and David Pepper,School of Biological Sciences, Earth and Environmental Sciences,University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.9. Predicting the effect of climate change on global plantproductivity and the carbon cycle.John Grace & Rui Zhang, Institute of Atmospheric andEnvironmental Science, School of GeoSciences, University ofEdinburgh, UK.References.Index