Editorial

Dear readers,
At present, actual and expected climate change has been no doubt one of the most debated global problems, may be also because we can contemporarily observe its impacts in various forms immediately around us.
Nature Conservation 2009 — 1. 9. 2009 — Special Issue
Current trends in the climate and projections for the future

The climate is a long-term characteristic weather regime, determined by the energy balance, atmospheric circulation, active surface characters and, recently, also human beings.
Nature Conservation 2009 — 1. 9. 2009 — Special Issue
Scenario of vegetation zone changes in the Czech Republic: ten years after

The regional scenario of climate change on the territory of the Czech Republic (Kalvová & Brázdil 1993) was the starting point for considerations on the effect of global climate change on the vegetation in the Czech Republic.
Nature Conservation 2009 — 1. 9. 2009 — Special Issue
Study on the global climate impacts at the ecosystem level

The carbon cycle is of fundamental importance for the biosphere as it is inseparably connected with the climate, water and nutrient cycles and the biomass production on the land and in the oceans. It is useful to recall that carbon is one of the most important crossroads of the non-living and living world.
Nature Conservation 2009 — 1. 9. 2009 — Special Issue
Biodiversity conservation at the close of modern times

The inhabitants of Europe did not go to bed one evening in the Middle Ages in 1492 to suddenly awaken into the Renaissance the next day; nonetheless, within only a few decades, at the end of the 15thand beginning of the 16thcentury, there was a substantial change in attitudes towards God, society, production, trade over large distances, human migration, the development of cities and landscape perception.
Nature Conservation 2009 — 1. 9. 2009 — Special Issue
Biodiversity and climate change in the European Union

Biodiversity & ecosystem services and climate change are closely linked. The impacts of climate change on biodiversity present new challenges for nature conservation. Adaptation measures will be necessary to ensure the achievement of nature conservation objectives under changing climatic conditions.
Nature Conservation 2009 — 1. 9. 2009 — Special Issue
Biological diversity and climate change
Climate is the weather averaged over a long period of time determined by energy balance, cycles in the atmosphere and in oceans and by land cover patterns. The climate changes are not caused only by natural processes. According to the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid-20thcentury is very likely (the assessed likelihood, using expert judgement, is over 90 %) due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations.
Nature Conservation 2009 — 1. 9. 2009 — Special Issue
Climate Protection Policy of the Czech Republic

In May of 2009, the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic presented the draft of the document Climate Protection Policy of the Czech Republic(hereinafter the Policy – Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic 2009).
Nature Conservation 2009 — 1. 9. 2009 — Special Issue
Nature and the landscape in the Czech Republic and their adaptation to climate change

In 2004, the Government of the Czech Republic adopted the document entitled National Programme to Abate the Climate Change Impacts in the Czech Republic(Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic 2004).
Nature Conservation 2009 — 1. 9. 2009 — Special Issue
The impact of global climate change on trends in bird numbers in the Czech Republic

The climate has pervasive effects on the distribution of organisms over the Earth (Lomolino et al.2005) and it has recently been found that it also substantially affects changes in the bird numbers over time (Crick 2004, Drent 2006, La Sorte & Thompson 2007).
Nature Conservation 2009 — 1. 9. 2009 — Special Issue