Effects of global climate change on the patterns of terrestrial biological communities.

Recent paleobiological research has shown that late-Quaternary global warming caused individual species distributions to change along environmental gradients in different directions, at different rates, and over different periods. The individualistic responses of the biota created new community patterns. Individualistic changes can be anticipated in the future and if, as predicted, the rate of warming caused by the 'greenhouse effect' is greater than in past events, then the individualistic responses may be even more profound.