Assessments of vegetation response to climate change have generally been made only by equilibrium vegetation models that predict vegetation composition under steady-state conditions. These models do not simulate either ecosystem biogeochemical processes or changes in ecosystem structure that may, in turn, act as feedbacks in determining the dynamics of vegetation change. MC1 is a new dynamic global vegetation model created to assess potential impacts of global climate change on ecosystem structure and function at a wide range of spatial scales from landscape to global. This new tool allows us to incorporate transient dynamics and make real time predictions about the patterns of ecological change. MC1 was created by combining physiologically based biogeographic rules defined in the MAPSS model with a modified version of the biogeochemical model, CENTURY. MC1 also includes a fire module, MCFIRE, that mechanistically simulates the occurrence and impacts of fire events.