Résumé
Advancing the field of ecology relies on understanding generalities and developing theories based on empirical and functional relationships that integrate across organismal to global spatial scales and span temporal scales. Significant advances in predicting responses of ecological communities to globally extensive anthropogenic perturbations, for example, require understanding the role of environmental context in determining outcomes, which in turn requires standardized experiments across sites and regions. Distributed collaborative experiments can lead to high-impact advances that would otherwise be unachievable. Here, we provide specific advice and considerations relevant to researchers interested in employing this emerging approach using as a case study our experience developing and running the Nutrient Network, a globally distributed experimental network (currently >75 sites in 17 countries) that arose from a grassroots, cooperative research effort. We clarify the design, goals and function of the Nutrient Network as a model to empower others in the scientific community to employ distributed experiments to advance our predictive understanding of global-scale ecological trends and responses. Our experiences to date demonstrate that globally distributed experimental science need not be prohibitively expensive or time-consuming on a per capita basis and is not limited to senior scientists or countries where science is well funded. While distributed experiments are not a panacea for understanding ecological systems, they can substantially complement existing approaches.
Auteurs, date et publication :
Auteurs Elizabeth T. Borer , W. Stanley Harpole , Peter B. Adler , Eric M. Lind , John L. Orrock , Eric W. Seabloom , Melinda D. Smith
Publication : Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Date : 2025
Volume : 5
Issue : 1
Pages : 65-73
Catégorie(s)
#CEREEP #CNRS #ENSRésumé
Droughts can strongly affect grassland productivity and biodiversity, but responses differ widely. Nutrient availability may be a critical factor explaining this variation, but is often ignored in analyses of drought responses. Here, we used a standardized nutrient addition experiment covering 10 European grasslands to test if full-factorial NPK-addition affected plant community responses to inter-annual variation in drought stress and to the extreme summer drought of 2018 in Europe. We found that nutrient addition amplified detrimental drought effects on community above-ground biomass production. Drought effects also differed between functional groups, with a negative effect on graminoid but not forb biomass production. Our results imply that eutrophication in grasslands, which promotes dominance of drought-sensitive graminoids over forbs, amplifies detrimental drought effects. In terms of climate change adaptation, agricultural management would benefit from taking into account differential drought impacts on fertilized versus unfertilized grasslands, which differ in ecosystem services they provide to society.
Auteurs, date et publication :
Auteurs Kevin Van Sundert , Mohammed A. S. Arfin Khan , Siddharth Bharath , Yvonne M. Buckley , Maria C. Caldeira , Ian Donohue , Maren Dubbert , Anne Ebeling , Nico Eisenhauer , Anu Eskelinen , Alain Finn , Tobias Gebauer , Sylvia Haider , Amandine Hansart , Anke Jentsch , Angelika Kübert , Ivan Nijs , Charles A. Nock , Carla Nogueira , Anita J. Porath‐Krause
Publication : Global Change Biology
Date : 2025
Volume : 27
Issue : 11
Pages : 2457
Catégorie(s)
#ANR-Citation #CEREEP #CNRS #ENSRésumé
Ecological models predict that the effects of mammalian herbivore exclusion on plant diversity depend on resource availability and plant exposure to ungulate grazing over evolutionary time. Using an experiment replicated in 57 grasslands on six continents, with contrasting evolutionary history of grazing, we tested how resources (mean annual precipitation and soil nutrients) determine herbivore exclusion effects on plant diversity, richness and evenness. Here we show that at sites with a long history of ungulate grazing, herbivore exclusion reduced plant diversity by reducing both richness and evenness and the responses of richness and diversity to herbivore exclusion decreased with mean annual precipitation. At sites with a short history of grazing, the effects of herbivore exclusion were not related to precipitation but differed for native and exotic plant richness. Thus, plant species’ evolutionary history of grazing continues to shape the response of the world’s grasslands to changing mammalian herbivory.
Auteurs, date et publication :
Auteurs Jodi N. Price , Judith Sitters , Timothy Ohlert , Pedro M. Tognetti , Cynthia S. Brown , Eric W. Seabloom , Elizabeth T. Borer , Suzanne M. Prober , Elisabeth S. Bakker , Andrew S. MacDougall , Laura Yahdjian , Daniel S. Gruner , Harry Olde Venterink , Isabel C. Barrio , Pamela Graff , Sumanta Bagchi , Carlos Alberto Arnillas , Jonathan D. Bakker , Dana M. Blumenthal , Elizabeth H. Boughton
Publication : Nature Ecology & Evolution
Date : 2022
Volume : 6
Issue : 9
Pages : 1290-1298