Abstract
This is an unusual conference. Here we are not mainly speaking to the experts of our own discipline. The common denominator of our presentations and discussions are processes in the solid earth related to temporal and spatial changes in a global scale and their interaction with other processes, possibly of different time scales in the spheres surrounding the lithosphere on which mankind is living. Welcome to this Alfred-Wegener-Conference on the Contribution of Solid Ear th Sciences to the IGBP. Welcome also in the name of the International Lithosphere Program. This conference is held at the request of the Bureau of the InterUnion Commission on the Lithosphere issued at Vancouver, August 1987. The Bureau felt tha t there is an urgent need for a better definition of the role of the solid earth sciences in the new International Geosphere-Biosphere Program, also known as the Global Change Program. To remind y o u t h e ICSU General Assembly in 1986 approved the IGBP-Global Change Program to start in the early 1990's. A special Committee for the IGBP was formed in 1987 comprising 13 members; it is charged with the preparation of the IGBP program at its start in early 1990's. The Special Committee has meanwhile formed 4 Coordinating Panels: 1. Terrestrial Biosphere-Atmospheric Chemistry Interactions (P.J. Crutzen) 2. Marine Biosphere-Atmosphere Interactions (T. Nemoto) 3. Biosphere Aspects of the Hydrological Cycle (S. Dyck) 4. Effects of Climate Change on Terrestrial Ecosystems (B.H. Walker) and 4 working Groups: 1. Global Geopshere-Biosphere Modelling (B. Bollin) 2. Data and Information Systems (S.I. Rasool) 3. Techniques for Extracting En vtronmental Data of the Past (H. Oeschger); now: Working Group on Global Changes of the Past. 4. Geo-Biosphere Observatories (R. Herrera) One important item in the discussion on the contribution of the solid earth sciences to IGBP is the question of the time scale of global changes to be investigated in IGBP. This discussion is gradually converging:
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