Global change and climate-vegetation classification

Three phrases of the quantitative study of climate-vegetation classificatio n and their characteristics are presented based on the review of advance in climate-vegetation interaction, a key issue of "global change and terrestr ial ecosystems (GCTE)" which is the core project of International Geosphere -Biosphere Programme (IGBP): (i) characterized by the correlation between n atural vegetation types and climate; (ii) characterized by climatic indices which have obviously been restricted to plant ecophysiology; (iii) charact erized by coupling both structure and function of vegetation. Thus, the pro spective of climate-vegetation classification for global change study in Ch ina was proposed, especially the study coupling climate-vegetation classifi cation models with atmospheric general circulation models (GCMs) was emphas ized.