- an ability to simultaneously study the multiple pressures of global change on ecosystems;
- tools to monitor multiple interacting ecosystem processes;
- tools to study changes at different levels of biological organization;
- a high diversity of ecosystem types (lakes, grasslands, soils, etc.) to study the multiple compartments of continental ecosystems;
- a portfolio of platforms and experimental tools covering different environmental periods and contexts, to integrate knowledge into models and address the different processes leading to ecosystem dynamics over different time scales;
- experimental tools that cover different spatial scales, also allowing to study the role of spatial dynamics on ecosystem processes.