Coastal East and Southeast Asia are characterized by wet growing seasons, and species-rich forest ecosystems develop throughout the latitudinal and altitudinal gradients. In this region, the Global Change Impacts on Terrestrial Ecosystems in Monsoon Asia (TEMA) project was carried out as a unique contribution to the international project Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems. TEMA aimed to integrate forest ecosystem processes, from leaf physiology to meteorological budget and prediction of long-term change of vegetation composition and architecture through demographic processes. Special attention was given to watershed processes, where forest ecosystem metabolism affects the properties and biogeochemical budgets of freshwater ecosystems, and where rivers, wetlands, and lakes are subject to direct and indirect effects of environmental change. This volume presents the scaling-up concept for better understanding of ecosystem functioning.

This new synthesis summarizes the international research effort in the Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE) Core Project of the International Geosphere Biosphere Programme in five major thematic areas: ecosystem physiology, ecosystem structure and composition, terrestrial production systems, global biogeochemistry, and ecological complexity (biodiversity). The editors present a summary of the integrated and interactive effects of global change on the terrestrial biosphere for four key regions of the world, as well as a projection of future trends in the terrestrial component of the global carbon cycle. The book also includes a section on tools developed or modified for global change research.