This website uses cookies.

By clicking the "Accept" button or continuing to browse our site, you agree to first-party and session-only cookies being stored on your device to enhance site navigation and analyze site performance and traffic. For more information on our use of cookies, please see our Privacy Policy.

  1. Home
  2. Journals
  3. American Economic Review
  4. May 2016
  5. The Ecosystem Impacts of Severe Warming

The Ecosystem Impacts of Severe Warming

  • Robert Mendelsohn
  • Iain C. Prentice
  • Oswald Schmitz
  • Benjamin Stocker
  • Robert Buchkowski
  • Benjamin Dawson
American Economic Review
vol. 106, no. 5, May 2016
(pp. 612-14)
Download Full Text PDF

Abstract

This paper uses a quantitative dynamic ecosystem vegetation model to explore the potential impact of warming up to 9-12 degrees C on global ecosystems. The paper does not find evidence of a global collapse in terrestrial ecosystems but there is evidence of substantial changes. Temperate and tropical forests expand and replace boreal forests and forests shift to woodlands and parkland at high temperatures. Net primary productivity and standing forest biomass per hectare rise. These changes will affect dependent animal species. Further research is needed to measure the resulting benefits and damages to market and nonmarket services.

Citation

Mendelsohn, Robert, Iain C. Prentice, Oswald Schmitz, Benjamin Stocker, Robert Buchkowski, and Benjamin Dawson. 2016. "The Ecosystem Impacts of Severe Warming." American Economic Review, 106 (5): 612-14. DOI: 10.1257/aer.p20161104

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • Q54 Climate; Natural Disasters and Their Management; Global Warming
  • Q57 Ecological Economics: Ecosystem Services; Biodiversity Conservation; Bioeconomics; Industrial Ecology
  • Q58 Environmental Economics: Government Policy