TY - JOUR
T1 - Ecotrons
T2 - Powerful and versatile ecosystem analysers for ecology, agronomy and environmental science
AU - Roy, Jacques
AU - Rineau, François
AU - De Boeck, Hans J.
AU - Nijs, Ivan
AU - Pütz, Thomas
AU - Abiven, Samuel
AU - Arnone, John A.
AU - Barton, Craig V.M.
AU - Beenaerts, Natalie
AU - Brüggemann, Nicolas
AU - Dainese, Matteo
AU - Domisch, Timo
AU - Eisenhauer, Nico
AU - Garré, Sarah
AU - Gebler, Alban
AU - Ghirardo, Andrea
AU - Jasoni, Richard L.
AU - Kowalchuk, George
AU - Landais, Damien
AU - Larsen, Stuart H.
AU - Leemans, Vincent
AU - Le Galliard, Jean François
AU - Longdoz, Bernard
AU - Massol, Florent
AU - Mikkelsen, Teis N.
AU - Niedrist, Georg
AU - Piel, Clément
AU - Ravel, Olivier
AU - Sauze, Joana
AU - Schmidt, Anja
AU - Schnitzler, Jörg Peter
AU - Teixeira, Leonardo H.
AU - Tjoelker, Mark G.
AU - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
AU - Winkler, Barbro
AU - Milcu, Alexandru
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - Ecosystems integrity and services are threatened by anthropogenic global changes. Mitigating and adapting to these changes require knowledge of ecosystem functioning in the expected novel environments, informed in large part through experimentation and modelling. This paper describes 13 advanced controlled environment facilities for experimental ecosystem studies, herein termed ecotrons, open to the international community. Ecotrons enable simulation of a wide range of natural environmental conditions in replicated and independent experimental units while measuring various ecosystem processes. This capacity to realistically control ecosystem environments is used to emulate a variety of climatic scenarios and soil conditions, in natural sunlight or through broad-spectrum lighting. The use of large ecosystem samples, intact or reconstructed, minimizes border effects and increases biological and physical complexity. Measurements of concentrations of greenhouse trace gases as well as their net exchange between the ecosystem and the atmosphere are performed in most ecotrons, often quasi continuously. The flow of matter is often tracked with the use of stable isotope tracers of carbon and other elements. Equipment is available for measurements of soil water status as well as root and canopy growth. The experiments ran so far emphasize the diversity of the hosted research. Half of them concern global changes, often with a manipulation of more than one driver. About a quarter deal with the impact of biodiversity loss on ecosystem functioning and one quarter with ecosystem or plant physiology. We discuss how the methodology for environmental simulation and process measurements, especially in soil, can be improved and stress the need to establish stronger links with modelling in future projects. These developments will enable further improvements in mechanistic understanding and predictive capacity of ecotron research which will play, in complementarity with field experimentation and monitoring, a crucial role in exploring the ecosystem consequences of environmental changes.
AB - Ecosystems integrity and services are threatened by anthropogenic global changes. Mitigating and adapting to these changes require knowledge of ecosystem functioning in the expected novel environments, informed in large part through experimentation and modelling. This paper describes 13 advanced controlled environment facilities for experimental ecosystem studies, herein termed ecotrons, open to the international community. Ecotrons enable simulation of a wide range of natural environmental conditions in replicated and independent experimental units while measuring various ecosystem processes. This capacity to realistically control ecosystem environments is used to emulate a variety of climatic scenarios and soil conditions, in natural sunlight or through broad-spectrum lighting. The use of large ecosystem samples, intact or reconstructed, minimizes border effects and increases biological and physical complexity. Measurements of concentrations of greenhouse trace gases as well as their net exchange between the ecosystem and the atmosphere are performed in most ecotrons, often quasi continuously. The flow of matter is often tracked with the use of stable isotope tracers of carbon and other elements. Equipment is available for measurements of soil water status as well as root and canopy growth. The experiments ran so far emphasize the diversity of the hosted research. Half of them concern global changes, often with a manipulation of more than one driver. About a quarter deal with the impact of biodiversity loss on ecosystem functioning and one quarter with ecosystem or plant physiology. We discuss how the methodology for environmental simulation and process measurements, especially in soil, can be improved and stress the need to establish stronger links with modelling in future projects. These developments will enable further improvements in mechanistic understanding and predictive capacity of ecotron research which will play, in complementarity with field experimentation and monitoring, a crucial role in exploring the ecosystem consequences of environmental changes.
KW - biodiversity
KW - controlled environment facilities
KW - ecosystem functioning
KW - ecosystem process measurements
KW - environmental simulations
KW - experimentation
KW - global change
KW - research infrastructures
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099838757&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/gcb.15471
DO - 10.1111/gcb.15471
M3 - Review article
C2 - 33274502
AN - SCOPUS:85099838757
SN - 1354-1013
VL - 27
SP - 1387
EP - 1407
JO - Global Change Biology
JF - Global Change Biology
IS - 7
ER -