ABSTRACT
This chapter argues the cases of the Dutch plant ecologists are relatively modest in comparison to many much larger cooperative efforts and involving much larger databases. But that makes them no less interesting. The International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme (IGBP) is a scientific program under the auspices of International Council for Science (ICSU), launched in 1987 and currently planned until 2013. The chapter groups notably the earth sciences, among which are included ecology, oceanography and geography, complementing the World Climate Research Programme. The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) is dominated by meteorology. This program started in 1980 and it has a planning agenda that extends to 2015. The primary internal organization of the IGBP is in Core Projects, one of which is the now terminated Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems (GCTE). The enlarged database was put to use in a model which simulated the impact of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems.
