Beyond realism in climate change experiments: gradient approaches identify thresholds and tipping points

Abstract

Experimental evidence for impacts of increased climatic variability and extremes on ecosystems is urgently needed. The constraint in our knowledge, however, is not caused by the uncertainty in the applied climate scenarios. We need mechanistic understanding from experiments challenging ecological thresholds coupled with ecosystem models to allow for meaningful up-scaling.

Keywords: climate change; experimental design; extreme events; field experiment.