Editing Botany (section)

=== Plants, climate and environmental change ===
Plant responses to climate and other environmental changes can inform our understanding of how these changes affect ecosystem function and productivity. For example, plant [[phenology]] can be a useful [[proxy (climate)|proxy]] for temperature in [[historical climatology]], and the biological [[effects of climate change|impact of climate change]] and [[global warming]]. [[Palynology]], the analysis of fossil pollen deposits in sediments from [[geologic timescale|thousands or millions of years ago]] allows the reconstruction of past climates.{{sfn|Bennett|Willis|2001|pp = 5–32}} Estimates of atmospheric {{CO2}} concentrations since the [[Palaeozoic]] have been obtained from [[stomatal]] densities and the leaf shapes and sizes of ancient [[land plants]].{{sfn|Beerling|Osborne|Chaloner|2001|pp = 287–394}} [[Ozone depletion]] can expose plants to higher levels of [[Ultraviolet|ultraviolet radiation-B]] (UV-B), resulting in lower growth rates.{{sfn|Björn|Callaghan|Gehrke|Johanson|1999|pp = 449–454}} Moreover, information from studies of [[community (ecology)|community ecology]], plant [[systematics]], and [[taxonomy (biology)|taxonomy]] is essential to understanding [[climate change#Vegetation|vegetation change]], [[habitat destruction]] and [[endangered species|species extinction]].{{sfn|Ben-Menahem|2009|pp = 5369–5370}}