Working in biomes across the world from tropical rain forests to Arctic tundra, the Ecology and Global Change (EGC) group aims to determine the nature of environmental change at a range of temporal and spatial scales. EGC has made major advances in understanding the sensitivity of vegetation to orbital millennial scale climate forcing, carbon cycling in tropical forests and ecohydrological responses of peatlands to past climate change. One of our key research areas has been the global monitoring of forests by setting up and leading international projects RAINFOR, FORESTPLOTS, AFRITRON, AMAZONICA and TForces. As a result, our work has made important contributions to both international and national climate and environmental management policy agendas.