The Relationship Between Land-Use Change and Climate Change

Land-use change is related to climate change as both a causal factor and a major way in which the effects of climate change are expressed. As a causal factor, land use influences the flux of mass and energy, and as land-cover patterns change, these fluxes are altered. Projected climate alterations will produce changes in land-cover patterns at a variety of temporal and spatial scales, although human uses of the land are expected to override many effects. A review of the literature dealing with the relationship between land-use change and climate change clearly shows that (1) in recent centuries land-use change has had much greater effects on ecological variables than has climate change; (2) the vast majority of land-use changes have little to do with climate change or even climate; and (3) humans will change land use, and especially land management, to adjust to climate change and these adaptations will have some ecological effects. Therefore, an understanding of the nonclimatic causes of land-use change (e.g., socioeconomics and politics) are necessary to manage ecological functions effectively on regional and global scales.