A key need of the global change research community is to be able to synthesize the data collected by scientists from a wide range of disciplines and use it to make predictions about our future environment. In an agricultural and forestry context, this will allow predictions of yields under elevated atmospheric CO2 levels and/or changed climate using data from studies of both the direct effects of global change on plant growth and physiology and indirect effects on soil fertility, water resources, pests and diseases.

A conference held at the University of Reading, UK in September 1999, and organized under the auspices of Focus 3 (Global Change Impact on Agriculture, Forestry and Soils; http://mwnta.nmw.ac.uk/GCTEFocus3) of the IGBP Core Project “Global Change and Terrestrial Ecosystems” addressed many of these issues.