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INTEGRATING EXPERIMENTAL AND GRADIENT METHODS IN ECOLOGICAL CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH
Author(s) -
Dunne Jennifer A.,
Saleska Scott R.,
Fischer Marc L.,
Harte John
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.144
H-Index - 294
eISSN - 1939-9170
pISSN - 0012-9658
DOI - 10.1890/03-8003
Subject(s) - climate change , generality , ecology , ecosystem , context (archaeology) , environmental resource management , environmental science , ecological forecasting , global change , global warming , geography , biology , psychology , archaeology , psychotherapist
Field‐based research on the responses of ecosystems to anthropogenic climate change has primarily used either natural gradient or experimental methods. Taken separately, each approach faces methodological, spatial, and temporal limitations that potentially constrain the generality of results and predictions. Integration of the two approaches within a single study can overcome some of those limitations and provide ways to distinguish among consistent, dynamic, and context‐dependent ecosystem responses to global warming. A simple conceptual model and two case studies that focus on climate change impacts on flowering phenology and carbon cycling in a subalpine meadow ecosystem illustrate the utility of this type of integration.