the forest plants. He concluded what is now widely-accepted, that organisms with the most sophisticated structure will die first when exposed to chronic stress. Simpler organisms are more resilient to chronic stress. He extrapolated to posit that the results he found in the Long Island forest ecosystem were also true of the global ecosystem: that natural systems will degrade in a predictable pattern when exposed to chronic stress. His research on pesticides focused on DDT where he and fellow scientists were among the first to warn of the harmful effects of DDT on wildlife. That work helped lead to a ban on the use of DDT in the US. It was this group of scientists and lawyers who established the Environmental Defense Fund as a result of their work on DDT. Woodwell has done extensive research on carbon budgeting in North American forests and estuaries. He was among the first to recognize that climate change created a positive feedback system: that the warming fed the warming, threatening an increase in the pace of climate change over time. Under his leadership the Woods Hole Research Center developed climate research programs around the world, including in the Amazon Basin, the Arctic, Cape Cod, and a program to map the decline of forests worldwide, using satellite imagery. He and his staff were instrumental in producing the Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992, which was approved by 92 countries at the Rio Climate Summit. References American environmentalists Living people Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 1928 births Fellows of the Ecological Society of America