A key need of the global change research community
is to be able to synthesize the data collected by
scientists from a wide range of disciplines and use it to
make predictions about our future environment. In
an agricultural and forestry context, this will allow
predictions of yields under elevated atmospheric CO2
levels and/or changed climate using data from studies
of both the direct effects of global change on plant
growth and physiology and indirect effects on soil
fertility, water resources, pests and diseases.
A conference held at the University of Reading,
UK in September 1999, and organized under
the auspices of Focus 3 (Global Change Impact
on Agriculture, Forestry and Soils; http://mwnta.nmw.ac.uk/GCTEFocus3) of the IGBP Core
Project “Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems”
addressed many of these issues.