The Institute for Global Change Biology: A Nexus for Interdisciplinary Global Change Research

Vision: To provide the interdisciplinary scientific bases to manage biological systems under global change.

Anthropogenic global change is causing biome shifts, species extinctions, functional disruptions in ecosystems, and the emergence of human and non-human diseases. While frequencies and magnitudes of impacts are accelerating, scientists, policymakers, and managers still lack the ability to predict with accuracy how anthropogenic changes will alter organisms, ecological communities, and ecosystems.

To help develop environmental policies and decision making tools to inform effective responses to global change impacts, the University of Michigan created the Institute for Global Change Biology. Through the IGCB, global change researchers at the University of Michigan have the support and infrastructure they need to collaborative effectively.

The primary goal of the IGCB is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the interactive effects of global change on organisms and ecological systems across temporal and spatial scales relevant to policy and management actions. 

The IGCB brings together researchers from an array of universities and disciplines to encompass a broad range of global change topics. Our associated faculty belong to an array of schools within the University of Michigan and across other institutions; e.g. The School for the Environment and Sustainability, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, School of Public Health, and Earth and Environmental Sciences.