Warming impact on shrub performance in semiarid ecosystems

In the first chapter of this book, global warming is introduced with historical changes, a number of key drivers of global warming. There are several experimental tools to stimulate impacts of global warming on various habitats. Open top chambers (OTCs) as a useful method to stimulate warming in natural fields is described in the end of the first chapter.Climate change means changing the type and abundance of living things. Ecologically, global warming can bring about profound changes in the environment, biodiversity, and human life. Rangelands play an important role in the climate system. Shrubs as one of the most important component in plant communities using carbon sequestration have a very important role in modulating global warming and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in arid and semi-arid ecosystems. However, these species have different responses to global warming. Chapter 2 deals with the warming changes in ecosystems, especial shrub responses to global warming. Chapter 3 reports an experimental study to investigate the effect of short-term warming on the performance of Petropyrum aucheri as a native species in arid and semi-arid regions of West Asia using OTC.