Roy, J.* ; Rineau, F.* ; De Boeck, H.J.* ; Nijs, I.* ; Pütz, T.* ; Abiven, S.* ; Arnone, J.A.* ; Barton, C.V.M.* ; Beenaerts, N.* ; Brüggemann, N.* ; Dainese, M.* ; Domisch, T.* ; Eisenhauer, N.* ; Garré, S.* ; Gebler, A.* ; Ghirardo, A. ; Jasoni, R.L.* ; Kowalchuk, G.* ; Landais, D.* ; Larsen, S.H.* ; Leemans, V.* ; Le Galliard, J.F.* ; Longdoz, B.* ; Massol, F.* ; Mikkelsen, T.N.* ; Niedrist, G.* ; Piel, C.* ; Ravel, O.* ; Sauze, J.* ; Schmidt, A.* ; Schnitzler, J.-P. ; Teixeira, L.H.* ; Tjoelker, M.G.* ; Weisser, W.W.* ; Winkler, J.B. ; Milcu, A.*
Ecotrons: Powerful and versatile ecosystem analysers for ecology, agronomy and environmental science.
Glob. Change Biol. 27, 1387-1407 (2021)
Ecosystems integrity and services are threatened by anthropogenic global changes. Mitigating and adapting to these changes requires 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 whilst simultaneously 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, minimises 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 run 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.
Impact Factor
Scopus SNIP
Web of Science
Times Cited
Scopus
Cited By
Altmetric
Publikationstyp
Artikel: Journalartikel
Dokumenttyp
Review
Typ der Hochschulschrift
Herausgeber
Schlagwörter
Biodiversity ; Controlled Environment Facilities ; Ecosystem Functioning ; Ecosystem Process Measurements ; Environmental Simulations ; Experimentation ; Global Change ; Research Infrastructures
Keywords plus
Sprache
englisch
Veröffentlichungsjahr
2021
Prepublished im Jahr
2020
HGF-Berichtsjahr
2020
ISSN (print) / ISBN
1354-1013
e-ISSN
1365-2486
ISBN
Bandtitel
Konferenztitel
Konferzenzdatum
Konferenzort
Konferenzband
Quellenangaben
Band: 27,
Heft: 7,
Seiten: 1387-1407
Artikelnummer: ,
Supplement: ,
Reihe
Verlag
Wiley
Verlagsort
111 River St, Hoboken 07030-5774, Nj Usa
Tag d. mündl. Prüfung
0000-00-00
Betreuer
Gutachter
Prüfer
Topic
Hochschule
Hochschulort
Fakultät
Veröffentlichungsdatum
0000-00-00
Anmeldedatum
0000-00-00
Anmelder/Inhaber
weitere Inhaber
Anmeldeland
Priorität
Begutachtungsstatus
Peer reviewed
POF Topic(s)
30202 - Environmental Health
Forschungsfeld(er)
Environmental Sciences
PSP-Element(e)
G-504991-001
Förderungen
Flemish Government : Hermes
Agence Nationale de la Recherche
FEDER Montpellier
Occitanie Region
Universiteit Hasselt
Regional Landcape Kempen and Maasland
Limburg Sterk Merk
FSR Flanders
FWO
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Copyright
Erfassungsdatum
2021-01-13