Human-induced changes in atmospheric chemistry and meteorology have the potential to alter a broad array of ecosystem processes over a range of temporal and spatial scales. These may have direct and indirect effects that could influence management strategies and landscape response to disturbances associated with natural events and land use. The extent to which forecasted global changes are effective in altering local ecosystem properties will depend upon a variety of factors. In this paper, I address species life history traits and community and landscape properties that can be used by land managers to evaluate potential manifestations of global change on a local scale.