The Asia-Pacific region is highly vulnerable and sensitive to climate change and has experienced unusual climate variability in recent decades such as tropical cyclones, rainfall extremes, frequent droughts, and extreme tides. The additional pressure of climate change on ecosystem and threats to sustainability of natural resources, coupled with high population density in many areas, creates an exceptional risk to humanity as population continues to expand and economic development moves forward at a rapid pace. This session focuses on two critical ecological issues in the Asia-Pacific region: to understand complex impacts of environmental changes and increased disturbances on ecosystem structure, function and diversity; and to examine the vulnerability and resilience of ecosystems under these stresses. Presentation topics include the climate-ecosystem interaction, deforestation, ecosystem carbon budgets, biodiversity, biotic invasion and species shifting in response to the changed climate. Mitigation and adaptation responses such as the UN-REDD (United Nations Collaborative Programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Developing Countries) are also discussed. The studies presented in this session aim to put the regional picture into the global perspective and offer useful insights and emerging scientific results for ecologists in North America.