International Biological Program Research Articles

Japanese International Biological Program

Japanese International Biological Program

ANADOLU İNSANININ ANTROPOMETRİK BOYUTLARI: 2005 YILI TÜRKİYE ANTROPOMETRİ ANKETİ GENEL SONUÇLARI

Population specific anthropometric dimensions are constituted by both the interaction of genetic structure and environmental factors. Knowing population specific anthropometric values will provide maximum efficiency on health, ergonomics, sports, engineering, architecture and industrial design in terms of research and design for target population. From this starting point, a nationwide anthropometry survey was conducted in 2004-2005, in Turkey to determine up to date anthropometric data. Anthropometric and socio-economic data were collected from 2100 (1050 males, 1050 females) individuals aged between 20-65 years from urban and rural areas of 14 cities, 28 districts and 56 villages which determined by Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT). According to the International Biological Program 37 anthropometric measurements were collected from each individual and a questionnaire were filled to obtain basic socio-demographic data, and statistical analyses were conducted by using SPSS 13.0, LMS and Kaleidagraph 3.5 software. Results showed that mean height for males are found to be 168.88 cm, mean weight 74.74 kg, sitting height 88.73 cm and leg length 96.42 cm. For females same measurements were found to be 155.03 cm, 67.12 kg, 82.07 cm and 86.91 cm, respectively. Study results demonstrated high sexual dimorphism. In addition, anthropometric and socio-economic data were compared with former Turkish study results and foreign study results. It has been determined that Turkish height of both males and females is lower than US and developed European countries, where sitting height is higher. In conclusion, present up to date nationwide anthropometric data constitutes a data base for the usage of anthropology, health, ergonomics, engineering and architecture sciences, and could provide comparative data for later periods.

Anthropometric parameters of growth and nutritional status in children aged 6 to 7 years in R. Macedonia

Evaluation of age- and sex-specific differences of anthropometric parameters that were used as indicators of growth and nutritional status in children aged 6 and 7 years in R. Macedonia and their comparison with the WHO and NCHS reference values. The study included 580 children aged 6 to 7 years from different regions of R. Macedonia. Eighteen anthropometric parameters were measured using standard equipment and measurement technique according to the International Biological Programme. The following nutritional indicators were calculated: BMI, weight-for-height, weight-for-age and height-for-age. The majority of anthropometric parameters have shown significant age- and sex-specific differences in favour of male subjects, with exception of skin-folds that were apparently higher in female subjects. Values at the 50th percentile in our male subjects for the index weight-for-age were 23 kg and 26.95 kg, respectively, whereas in the female subjects they were 22 kg and 25 kg, respectively. The index height-for-age corresponding to the 50th percentile showed higher values in our male subjects (119.5 cm and 125.55 cm) than in our female subjects (118 cm and 124.5 cm, respectively). 50th percentile in our male subjects for BMI was 16.48 kg/m2 and 16.75 kg/m2, whereas in our female subjects it was 15.98 kg/m2 and 16.25 kg/m2, respectively. The found values are recommended to be applied for evaluation of deviations in the growth and nutritional status in children aged 6 and 7 years from Macedonian nationality.

Gender and Generation on the Far Western Frontier by Cynthia Culver Prescott

theHJ. Andrews Experimental Forest, was established in 1948 and is jointlyadministered byOregon StateUniversity, theForest Service PNW Research Station, and the Willamette National Forest.The Andrews covers approxi mately sixteen thousand acres ofmountainous terrain in theCascade Range ofwest-central Oregon, including the entire drainage basin of Lookout Creek. The initialfocus of research at theAndrews Experimental Forestwas management for the production of timber on a 100-year rotation. That focus began to shiftas new discoveries shaped thedirection of scientific inquiry and as the growing community of scientistsbegan to recognize the potential fornew avenues of research in areas such as watershed and cli mate studies,wildlife ecology, and forestand stream dynamics. The emergence of a point of view marked by a willingness to consider new approaches to research in the "outdoor laboratory" characterized the scientific com munity thatcame tobe known as the"Andrews Group." Chapters three through six ofNecessary Work explore several interconnected themes. One such theme is the growing linksbetween interdisciplinaryscience and long-termexperi mental research, such as log decomposition over a 200-year time frame, modeling of long termprocesses, and theenvironmental legacies of clearcutting on forest and stream ecology. That long-term focus led to participation in larger efforts,such as the International Bio logical Programme (IBP) during the 1970sand theNational Science Foundation's Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program from the 1980s through thepresent. Another theme is the increasing public awareness of environmental issues and the resulting effects on policy, the scientific landscape, the complexities of interagency management, and the research community itself. Changing policies and priorities sparked debates over environmental issues such as log ging inold-growth forestsand thecontroversy overhabitat requirementsof thenorthern spot ted owl. Research conducted on theAndrews Forest was sometimes at the heart of these debates, creating additional pressures on the scientificcommunity as findingswere used to informand even shape public policy. The final chapters explore the concepts of community, institutionbuilding, and coopera tive ethics at the core of theAndrews Group. This human aspect,perhaps unimagined when theexperimental forest was founded, resonates throughoutNecessaryWork and is illuminated byGeier's inclusion of commentary,anecdotes, and reflectionsby key participants during the past fifty years. Necessary Work isbuilt around oral histo ries, interviews,and archivalmaterial under lainwith information drawn from scientific researchpublications. Geier deftlyinterweaves history and science into a cohesive, flowing narrative. The result isa harmonious blend of science and community, research and history, thatcaptures the spiritof theAndrews Experi mental Forest. Caryn M. Davis Oregon State University GENDERAND GENERATION ON THE FAR WESTERN FRONTIER byCynthiaCulverPrescott University ofArizona Press, Tucson, 2007. Illustrations, photographs, tables, notes, bibliography, index. 230 pages. $49-95 cloth. During the late 1970s and 1980s, historians produced many studies that illuminated and explained themigration that flooded the far western territorieswith land-hungry settlers from theMidwest. Readers of these histories, pleased but not completely satisfied, asked: "What happened then?"This book is a com pact reply to thatquestion, sharply focused on evolving gender roles and ideologies on settler Reviews 337 farms inOregon's Willamette Valley from 1845 to 1900. Cynthia Prescott tells readers that thenext generation became asmuch likeEasterners as possible. In the Willamette Valley, she argues, settlersquickly reestablished a domestic ideol ogy that separated the roles forwomen and men and dictated thatwomen's place was working inside the home while men worked outside in thefields.This lush farmingvalley, predominantly composed of equal numbers ofmale and femaleEuro-Americans, was both geographically and culturally likethe Midwest. On the ideological frontier,settlerscultivated "good manners." The second generation, how ever,quickly veered away from that founding culture to a new middle-class culture of "con sumption and refined leisure." Prescott argues thispoint indifferent ways. Euro-American families on first-generation farms did most of their own work, but the second generation changed thatculture. While male and female responsibilities within the family remained basically static, the children of the firstsettlersmarried at an older age and worked within an increasingly gendered division of labor.Young men questioned their fathers' authority, and young women sought more balanced power relationships within marriage. Together, theycreated social activities thatmirrored the evolving, national middle class lifestyle. Prescott describes that new lifestylepri marily through itsdomestic side. In careful detail, she shows evidence from material culture tomake her point. Quilts, clothing, and photographs...

Correlation of dental age and anthropometric parametres of the overall growth and development in children

Anthropometric methods of measuring the whole body and body parts are the most commonly applied methods of analysing the growth and development of children. Anthropometric measures are interconnected, so that with growth and development the change of one of the parameters causes the change of the other. The aim of the paper was to analyse whether dental development follows the overall growth and development and what the ratio of this interdependence is. The research involved a sample of 134 participants, aged between 6 and 8 years. Dental age was determined as the average of the sum of existing permanent teeth from the participants aged 6, 7 and 8. With the aim of analysing physical growth and development, commonly accepted anthropometric indexes were applied: height, weight, circumference of the head, the chest cavity at its widest point, the upper arm, the abdomen, the thigh and thickness of the epidermis. The dimensions were measured according to the methodology of the International Biological Programme. The influence of the pertinent variables' related size on the analysed variable was deter mined by the statistical method of multivariable regression. The middle values of all the anthropometric parametres, except for the thickness of the epidermis, were slightly bigger with male participants, and the circumference of the chest cavity was statistically considerably bigger (p < 0.05). The results of anthropometric measurement showed in general a distinct homogeneity not only of the sample group but also within gender, in relation to all the dimensions, excyt for the thickness of the epidermis. The average of the dental age of the participants was 10.36, (10.42 and 10.31 for females and males respectively). Considerable correlation (R = 0.59) with high statistical significance (p < 0.001) was determined between dental age and the set of anthropometric parameters of general growth and development. There is a considerable positive correlation (R = 0.59) between dental age and anthropometric parameters of general growth and development, which confirms that dental development follows the overall growth and development of children, aged between 6 and 8 years.

Estimation of stature in Turkish adults usinig knee height

Body height is an important clinical indicator to derive body mass index (BMI), which is a useful screening tool for both excess adiposity and malnutrition. Height measurement in the elderly may impose some difficulties and the reliability is doubtful. Stature estimation from knee height is one of the commonly used methods; nevertheless no study has been carried out so far on the Turkish population. A cross sectional anthropometric study was conducted to develop body height estimation equations by using knee height measurement for Turkish people. Measurements of height and knee height were taken according to the International Biological Programme procedures from 1422 adults (610 males, 812 females) aged 18-90 years from Ankara, the capital city of Turkey. Samples were randomly split into two sub-samples, training and validation (control group) sub-samples. Height estimation equations were developed from the knee height measurements by linear regression analysis according to age groups and sexes. Males were significantly taller and have higher knee height values than females in all age groups. Height and the knee height variables showed a gradual decrease (P 50) with aging in females and males. Evaluated knee height equations for stature estimation were tested through the validation sample and the results showed high accuracy. The study presents sex and age specific regression equations for height estimation by using the knee height measurement for Turkish adults and suggests facilitating the accurate usage of knee height.

Robert Lewis Burgess 1931–2002

Robert Lewis Burgess 1931–2002

ENERGY USE AND ANIMAL ABUNDANCE IN LITTER AND SOIL COMMUNITIES

Tools from metabolic scaling and food web theory were used to construct a general model of carbon flux by litter and soil invertebrates. The flux model was used to explore the energetic basis of invertebrate abundance and predicted that abundance should (1) scale linearly with net primary production; (2) be related to the body mass of animals as a power function, with an exponent between -0.65 and -0.85; (3) be related to the average body temperature of animals according to the Boltzmann factor, with an activation energy between 0.27 and 0.79 eV; and (4) decrease by a factor of 0.05 to 0.15 across trophic levels due to gross production efficiency of prey. Model predictions were generally supported by a global data set on invertebrate abundance that was amassed during the International Biological Programme, indicating that fundamental energetic principles explain a large degree of variation in invertebrate abundance across the globe.

Biological control of the terrestrial carbon sink

Abstract. This lecture reviews the past (since 1964 when the International Biological Program began) and the future of our understanding of terrestrial carbon fluxes with focus on photosynthesis, respiration, primary-, ecosystem-, and biome-productivity. Photosynthetic capacity is related to the nitrogen concentration of leaves, but the capacity is only rarely reached under field conditions. Average rates of photosynthesis and stomatal conductance are closely correlated and operate near 50% of their maximal rate, with light being the limiting factor in humid regions and air humidity and soil water the limiting factor in arid climates. Leaf area is the main factor to extrapolate from leaves to canopies, with maximum surface conductance being dependent on leaf level stomatal conductance. Additionally, gas exchange depends also on rooting depth which determines the water and nutrient availability and on mycorrhizae which regulate the nutrient status. An important anthropogenic disturbance is the nitrogen uptake from air pollutants, which is not balanced by cation uptake from roots and this may lead to damage and breakdown of the plant cover. Photosynthesis is the main carbon input into ecosystems, but it alone does not represent the ecosystem carbon balance, which is determined by respiration of various kinds. Plant respiration and photosynthesis determine growth (net primary production) and microbial respiration balances the net ecosystem flux. In a spruce forest, 30% of the assimilatory carbon gain is used for respiration of needles, 20% is used for respiration in stems. Soil respiration is about 50% the carbon gain, half of which is root respiration, half is microbial respiration. In addition, disturbances lead to carbon losses, where fire, harvest and grazing bypass the chain of respiration. In total, the carbon balance at the biome level is only about 1% of the photosynthetic carbon input, or may indeed become negative. The recent observed increase in plant growth has different reasons depending on the region of the world: anthropogenic nitrogen deposition is the controlling factor in Europe, increasing global temperatures is the main factor in Siberia, and maybe rising CO2 the factor controlling the carbon fluxes in Amazonia. However, this has not lead to increases in net biome productivity, due to associated losses. Also important is the interaction between biodiversity and biogeochemical processes. It is shown that net primary productivity increases with plant species diversity (50% species loss equals 20% loss in productivity). However, in this extrapolation the action of soil biota is poorly understood although soils contribute the largest number of species and of taxonomic groups to an ecosystem. The global terrestrial carbon budget strongly depends on areas with pristine old growth forests which are carbon sinks. The management options are very limited, mostly short term, and usually associated with high uncertainty. Unmanaged grasslands appear to be a carbon sink of similar magnitude as forest, but generally these ecosystems lost their C with grazing and agricultural use. Extrapolation to the future of Earth climate shows that the biota will not be able to balance fossil fuel emissions, and that it will be essential to develop a carbon free energy system in order to maintain the living conditions on earth.

L’invention africaine de l’écologie française

The African Invention of French Ecology History of the Field Station of Lamto (Ivory Coast), 1942-1976 This article examines how ecological researches conducted at the field station of Lamto (Ivory Coast) contributed to the institutional and theoretical structuring of ecology in post-war France. Created in 1962 by the École normale supérieure of Paris (ENS) and supported by the International Biological Program (IBP), the station of Lamto was devoted to the quantitative study of the savannah ecosystem. The history of Lamto – understood as a scientific project and as a site of research – reveals the importance of the post-colonial deployment of French scientists in Africa, in the context of « la Coopération ». First, the scientific genealogy of Lamto enables to trace the colonial roots of quantitative ecology. The Lamto project originated during the naturalist exploration of the prairies of Mount Nimba (Guinea), as early as 1942. A young French naturalist, Maxime Lamotte, conceived there his first investigations in quantitative ecology, relying on a massive use of local indigenous auxiliaries. At the turn of African independences, his project had to be displaced to the neighbouring Ivory Coast, where the station of Lamto was founded. The second part of the article insists on the organization of scientific work at Lamto, between 1962 and 1976. The study of the ecosystem of Lamto, internationally recognized as excellent, relied on a strict coordination of researches. While Lamotte, who headed the zoology laboratory of the ENS, compiled data for the whole ecosystem, several PhD students focused respectively on one component. In turn, they employed numerous unskilled workers for raw material collection. Drawing on colonial hierarchies, the organization thus reflected metaphorically the pyramidal structure of ecosystems. In a third part, the article discusses the role of scientists from Lamto in the emergence in France of ecology as a scientific discipline. The international insertion of the project –the most important French project sponsored by the IBP– gave a strong influence to its leader Maxime Lamotte and to several other scientists. On the tropical field of Lamto, the durable contacts between botanists, zoologists and geographers boosted interdisciplinary dialogue, which proved crucial to the theoretical and institutional making of ecology. Lamto has thus not only been a favourable site for ecological research, but also an occasion of circulations beyond national and disciplinary boundaries.

Phillip Sadler Nutman. 10 October 1914 – 4 May 2004

Dr Phillip Nutman was a microbiologist and plant physiologist, distinguished for his research into the infection of roots of legumes by root nodule bacteria of the genus Rhizobium. This is a subject that is truly symbiotic, involving both leguminous host plants and free–living soil bacteria, which join in a complex, often specific interaction to produce symbiotic, nodulated, nitrogen–fixing plants. His research pre–dated the molecular genetics now available to modern researchers and used the techniques of plant physiology and Mendelian genetics to explore the mechanisms of infection, subsequent nodule development and the symbiotic fixation of atmospheric nitrogen. The research took place in the laboratories and fields of Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, where the study of nitrogen fixation by nodulated legumes first developed in the UK (Russell 1966). There were components of related research in Australia, 1953–57 (Bergersen 2001), and also in other countries during the International Biological Programme of 1966–73, in which Nutman was an active participant. He was a well–respected leader in active research during a period in which the subject underwent rapid development. In many ways his work became the basis on which more recent research has developed. He was a modest, self–effacing, scrupulously honest man who became increasingly impatient with the methods of research management that were emerging within the Agriculture and Food Research Council towards the end of his career at Rothamsted. After his retirement, in his Personal Record, he wrote critically about these matters.

50 lat badań Instytutu Ekologii PAN nad populacjami gryzoni

A review of rodent studies conducted in the Institute of Ecology is presented. The investigations took place both in the laboratory (mostly on Mus muscidus) and field conditions (first of all on Apodemus flavicollis, Clethrionomys glareolus and Microtus arvalis). The aim of the studies varied in time, and was always preceded by detailed, and often new, considerations on methods to be applied. Theoretical assumptions also evolved with time: from simple density-dependent approach to population demography, through the idea of the importance of population structures, to individualistic approach and neighborhood systems. A substantial part of the studies was aimed at interrelations between rodent species in heterogeneous habitats. The International Biological Program resulted in papers devoted to interrelations between rodent (secondary) productivity and basic habitat features (like food resources and their spatial distribution). Special attention was paid to confined populations, and among the long term (37 years) studies on a bank vole population inhabiting Crabapple Island.

Guy Mountfort, 1905–2003

Guy Mountfort, 1905–2003

Czym jest współczesna ekologia człowieka

Human ecology is a synthetic transdisciplinary science concerned with human life and culture as a dynamic component of ecosystems. Human ecology (HE) synthesizes parts of the knowledge of several classical disciplines in a specific way. The essence of HE is the interaction between humans and the total environment. While the whole idea of HE is originated in anthropology, the first time the term .human ecology" was used in geography and next in sociology. Historically, in its monodisciplinary stage of development, the problems of several classical disciplines related to man and environment were called human ecology. The next stage was the multidisciplinary state, related to IBP (International Biological Programme), presenting a patchwork of information without syntheses. Contemporary HE offers more than a patchwork of knowledge and is based on system theory. In human ecology, human evolution and ontogeny are understood as processes of adaptation and adjustment to the environment. HE may be considered to have two parallel foci: an academic HE as a scientific discipline, and an action-oriented HE (environmental engineering, preservation, education, and health protection against environmental deterioration). In HE several divisions and research perspectives may be defined: 1. Philosophical problems of HE; 2. Social and biological problems of human-environment; 3. Environmental problems of human biology and 4. Cultural adaptive behavior.

Smoking, disease, and obdurate denial: the Australian tobacco industry in the 1980s

Objective: To contrast the Australian tobacco industry’s awareness of the diseases caused by smoking with their aggressive public denial on the relation between smoking and disease in the 1980s. Design:...

What is "Integrative Biology"?

We have a tiger by the tail, folks; ‘‘integrative bi-ology’’ suddenly has cachet and significance. Manybiologists now call themselves integrative biologists;academic units in the U.S. are changing their namesto Integrative Biology (it occurred at Berkeley twelveyears ago, and the department has been trying to de-velop wide-ranging but coherent research and teachingin integrative biology; departments at Texas, Illinois,and Basel, for example, also are deliberately ‘‘integra-tive biology.’’ National Science Foundation programareas are stressing the ‘‘integrative’’ aspects of re-search in name and practice; and scientists talk about‘‘integrative’’ approaches to biodiversity (e.g., Wake,1995, 1998), to physiology (e.g., Marden et al., 1998),endocrinology and neurobiology (e.g., Vaudry et al.,1998), ecology and morphology (e.g., Wainwright andReilly, 1994), biology hierarchically (e.g., Wake, 1990;Pennisi, 2000), and even to medicine (e.g., Goldstein,1997; Chien, 2000; Halperin and Kamel, 2000; Rudy,2000), and many other synthetic areas that cross stan-dard disciplinary boundaries.The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biol-ogy has been at the forefront in developing and pro-moting integrative approaches to research and educa-tion. We continue and expand our emphasis on organ-ismal biology from multiple perspectives in an attemptto evaluate issues of biological complexity and theirmany dimensions, including the physical and social.We realized more than a decade ago that we neededto adopt a position of leadership in advancing an in-tegrative and comparative perspective in the study ofbiology. We changed our name to reflect our problem-oriented approach; several of our Divisions havechanged their banners, usually adding the study ofevolution to their mission, and we have added newdivisions.We have not been alone in this effort, though. As Imentioned above, academic departments and someagencies have espoused integrative approaches to sci-ence. One in particular that joined this effort is theInternational Union of Biological Sciences, our co-sponsor of this symposium on ‘‘The Promise of Inte-grative Biology.’’ IUBS deserves to be much betterknown in the USA than it is; it has been the originatorof many activities that have involved U.S. biologists,such as the International Biological Program (IBP), theDecade of the Tropics, and DIVERSITAS, the inter-

Diatom response to recent climatic change in a high arctic lake (Char Lake, Cornwallis Island, Nunavut)

From 1968 to 1972, Char Lake (Resolute Bay, Cornwallis Island, Canadian High Arctic) was the site of a large-scale limnological study conducted under the auspices of the International Biological Programme. However, since that time, very little research has been done on the lake. We sampled Char Lake from 1992 to 2000 for a suite of physical, chemical, and biological variables. In general, there were no major differences between our water quality data and those collected 30 years earlier, showing that Char Lake is still oligotrophic, slightly alkaline, and dilute. However, a diatom-based paleolimnological analysis revealed that a subtle, yet distinct species assemblage shift has occurred beginning around 1987. The timing of this species shift does not correspond to the deposition of atmospherically transported persistent organic pollutants into the lake (beginning in the early 1950s) or to minor disturbances within its catchment (early 1970s). Instead, these subtle diatom changes are consistent with recent climatic changes during 1988–1997 (as documented by local meteorological measurements), and are likely related to reduced summer ice cover and a longer growing season.

Phytoplankton in the Marsdiep at the end of the 20th century; 30 years monitoring biomass, primary production, and Phaeocystis blooms

Regular phytoplankton research in the Marsdiep started in the early 1970s as a curiosity-driven project fitting in the International Biological Programme (IBP). Interest was primarily in seasonal variation in species composition, biomass and primary production. Initially our monitoring was not intended to extend beyond the IBP programme, which ended in 1971. However, the example and support of Jan Beukema and the interesting links with his work on secondary production in the Wadden Sea were decisive in its continuation. As a result, we now have a time series of well over 30 years. We had the good luck to start in a period of relatively low phytoplankton values, whereas in the late 1970s biomass and primary production doubled in a short period. Duration of the Phaeocystis blooms, which regularly occur in spring and early summer in Dutch coastal waters, also increased. Light limitation plays a dominant role in turbid coastal waters. Our Secchi disc data up to 1985 did not indicate changes in turbidity, and therefore increases were seen as a eutrophication phenomenon. What would then be more natural than to expect phytoplankton to decrease again with the lowering of phosphate values in the 1980s and 1990s as a result of the successful cleaning of the Rhine? The data up to 1992 did not show any effect on phytoplankton of this de-eutrophication. Annual primary production during the period 1992–2000 decreased from a peak value of >400 gC m −2 in 1994 to ca. 250 now. Over the entire period 1974–2000, a slight increase in turbidity was observed. Phosphate concentrations have dropped a little further since 1992, but as could be expected, dissolved nitrogen (nitrate, nitrite and ammonia) and reactive silica did not show changes since the mid 1970s; inputs from freshwater and the atmosphere have not decreased. In accordance with the decrease of primary production, also chlorophyll-a and Phaeocystis cell numbers have dropped since 1994. These first signs of a decrease in phytoplankton parameters probably related to de-eutrophication make continuation of our Marsdiep monitoring highly interesting. No lengthening of the growing season of phytoplankton was observed comparable to that observed in terrestrial vegetation and related to global warming, but Phaeocystis growth seems to start earlier now. Our phytoplankton research covers only a small part of the period of man-induced changes of the Wadden Sea ecosystem, which started already in the Middle Ages. Certainly the recent overfishing of filter feeders such as cockles and mussels has affected phytoplankton, but also the cultivation of mussels and introduction of exotics such as Crassostrea gigas and Ensis directus must have influenced phytoplankton. The Marsdiep phytoplankton time series has proved to be useful in the continued ecosystem research in the western Wadden Sea. Continuation of this time series will also be helpful to study natural versus human-induced variations in this area.

Terrestrial Global Productivity

Abstract Terrestrial primary productivity has been a central focus of ecologists worldwide for the last three decades. The International Biological Program (IBP) of the early 1970s laid the foundation and provided a wealth of knowledge on the biological basis of productivity in different environments. However, there was little progress, until recently, in estimating productivity of large regions and biomes. The growing realization that productivity of terrestrial ecosystems is strongly affected by changes in climate and land-use patterns has prompted ecologists to translate ecological hypotheses derived from the local or stand level into continental or global scales. In recent years, policymakers also have focused their attention on terrestrial primary productivity because of the importance of land ecosystems as carbon sinks and their role in mitigating the impacts of rising atmospheric CO2. Hence, an effort in updating and synthesizing the current state of knowledge and research on global primary productivity should be appreciated. Through the publication of this book the editors have done a commendable job in bringing together the collective wisdom of 50 prominent ecologists in analyzing primary productivity from the canopy to global level and identifying gaps in our knowledge base.

Terrestrial net primary productivity – A brief history and a new worldwide database

Consistent data on terrestrial net primary productivity (NPP) are urgently needed to constrain model estimates of carbon fluxes and hence to refine our understanding of ecosystem responses to climate change. The NPP data have been collected in a coordinated manner for the past 30 years, but comprehensive summaries are rare. We report on the development and availability of a global NPP database that is suitable for modeling of the terrestrial carbon cycle at global and regional scales, for validation of remote sensing data, and for other applications. These data were obtained from the literature on ecophysiological field work and from detailed consultation with the scientific community. Data on NPP, biomass, and associated environmental variables are now publicly available for 53 detailed study sites, of which more than half have data for belowground biomass or biomass dynamics. Aboveground NPP ranges from 35 to 2320 g m–2a–1 (dry matter) and total NPP from 182 to 3538 g m–2a–1. Well-known but previously unobtainable compilations of data, such as the "Osnabrück Data Set" and the International Biological Program (IBP) Woodlands Data Set, are also incorporated in this database. Preliminary exploration of relationships between NPP and mean annual precipitation and temperature suggests that the new 53-site data collection, as well as the Osnabrück and IBP data, are all consistent with the historic "Miami" statistical model. These data are available from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Distributed Active Archive Center (ORNL DAAC) for biogeochemical dynamics (see http://www.daac.ornl.gov/NPP/).Key words: net primary productivity, grasslands, forests, biogeochemical dynamics, global carbon cycle, model validation.