Mesocosms Reveal Ecological Surprises from Climate Change

Understanding, predicting, and mitigating the impacts of climate change on biodiversity poses one of the most crucial challenges this century. Currently, we know more about how future climates are likely to shift across the globe than about how species will respond to these changes. Two recent studi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLoS biology 2015-12, Vol.13 (12), p.e1002323-e1002323
Main Author: Fordham, Damien A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Animals
Biodiversity
Climate Change
Climatic changes
Closed ecological systems
Community
Ecology
Ecosystems
Endangered & extinct species
Environmental aspects
Experiments
Forecasts and trends
Funding
Global warming
Humans
Hydrobiology - methods
Mesocosms
Models, Biological
Physiology
Population
Primer
Studies
Up-Regulation
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Summary:Understanding, predicting, and mitigating the impacts of climate change on biodiversity poses one of the most crucial challenges this century. Currently, we know more about how future climates are likely to shift across the globe than about how species will respond to these changes. Two recent studies show how mesocosm experiments can hasten understanding of the ecological consequences of climate change on species' extinction risk, community structure, and ecosystem functions. Using a large-scale terrestrial warming experiment, Bestion et al. provide the first direct evidence that future global warming can increase extinction risk for temperate ectotherms. Using aquatic mesocosms, Yvon-Durocher et al. show that human-induced climate change could, in some cases, actually enhance the diversity of local communities, increasing productivity. Blending these theoretical and empirical results with computational models will improve forecasts of biodiversity loss and altered ecosystem processes due to climate change.
ISSN:1545-7885
1544-9173
1545-7885
DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.1002323