






Vol.1 , No. 2, Publication Date: Sep. 29, 2014, Page: 27-42
[1] | Eno Okon Thompson, Department of Botany and Ecological Studies, Faculty of Science, University of Uyo, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. |
There is significant current interest and research focus on the phenomenon of recent anthropogenic climate changes or global warming. Focus is on identifying the current impacts of climate change on vegetation and predicting these effects into the future. Changing climate variables relevant to the function and distribution of plants include increasing global temperatures, altered precipitation patterns and changes in season as well as the pattern of extreme weather such a cyclones, fires or storms. Evidences of these changes are inferred from changes in proxies, indicators that reflect climate such as vegetation, ice cores, dendrochronology, sea level change, glacial geology, and archaeological evidences. The main drivers of these changes have been temperature and carbondioxide as well as other greenhouse gases. These drivers increase at a much faster rate by anthropogenic activities than natural influences. Thus this review aims at analyzing at a large scale, the effects of these changes on different vegetation types and on biodiversity and the predictions of these effects on the future vegetation.
Keywords
Climate Change, Vegetation, Anthropogenic Activities, Temperature, Carbondioxide, Biodiversity
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