XVI International Botanical Congess

We report on an exercise to develop scenarios of changes in biodiversity for the year 2100 for the different biomes of the world. The biodiversity scenarios were based on scenarios of changes in climate, CO2 , N deposition, vegetation, and land use as well as the known sensitivity of each biome. Results of this exercise suggest that land use change may be the driver with the largest impact on biodiversity followed by climate change, nitrogen deposition, elevated CO2 , and biotic exchange. The biomes that will experience the largest changes in biodiversity are grasslands and southern temperate forests as a result of large expected changes in land use. On the contrary, deserts and northern temperate forests may show moderate changes in biodiversity because land-use changes are not likely to occur such as in deserts or have already occurred such as in northern temperate forests.