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In addition, biodiversity plays a direct role in climate regulation. Biodiversity affects the ability of terrestrial ecosystems to capture atmospheric carbon, their rates of evapotranspiration and temperature, all of which affect climate at local and global levels. Biodiversity affects atmospheric carbon sequestration primarily through its effects on species’ characteristics, which determine how much carbon is taken up from the atmosphere, how much will be retained or fixed, and how much of this carbon will be released back into the atmosphere over time. The appropriate choice of species is potentially critical for maximizing carbon sequestration in the design and implementation of Climate Change mitigation activities.

More is known about birds’ response to climate change to date than for any other animal group, mostly as a result of many species- and location-specific analyses. Yet of the global or international-scale analyses of biodiversity and climate change, very few concentrate on birds in particular. This review seeks to provide a global survey of the climate threat to birds by compiling hundreds of individual studies to resolve the larger picture of impacts

This handbook provides an overview of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (the Convention) as of August 2006. It focuses on the institutional framework of the Convention and the actions taken by the Conference of the Parties to the Convention (COP). It touches on some aspects of the Kyoto Protocol but it is first and foremost a handbook to the Convention.