Ecosystems Ecosystems are of fundamental importance to environmental function and to sustainability, and they provide many goods and services critical to individuals and societies. In addition, natural ecosystems have cultural, religious, aesthetic, and intrinsic existence values. Changes in climate have the potential to affect the geographic location of ecological systems, the mix of species that they contain, and their ability to provide the wide range of benefits on which societies rely for their continued existence.
Ecological systems are intrinsically dynamic and are constantly influenced by climate variability.
The primary influence of anthropogenic climate change on ecosystems is expected to be through the rate and magnitude of change in climate means and extremes climate change is expected to occur at a rapid rate relative to the speed at which ecosystems can adapt and reestablish themselves and through the direct effects of increased atmospheric CO 2 concentrations, which may increase the productivity and efficiency of water use in some plant species. Objective The ultimate objective of this Convention and any related legal instruments that the Conference of the Parties may adopt is to achieve, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Convention, stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. Such a level should be achieved within a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner. Based on model simulations of vegetation distribution, which use GCM-based climate scenarios, large shifts of vegetation boundaries into higher latitudes and elevations can be expected. The mix of species within a given vegetation class likely will change.