The Ecosystem Sensitivity to Rainfall Experiment (EcoSeRE): An international experimental network

Background/Question/Methods

Recently, there have been multiple calls for coordinated research conducted at the network-level to address pressing regional to global-scale ecological issues, such as forecasting the impacts of climate change across a range of ecosystems. To that end, we held a working group meeting at the 2012 LTER All-Scientists Meeting (ASM) to build upon previous planning efforts, as well as to gauge community interest in participating in a coordinated network of rainfall manipulation experiments to be distributed internationally. Over 35 people attended the meeting and there was universal enthusiasm for establishing such a network, referred to here as EcoSeRE. As a result of the ASM meeting, others held at the 2011 International Association of Vegetation Scientists conference and ESA in 2012, and most recently a joint LTER /INTERFACE funded meeting in 2013, we have commitments from scientists in Africa, Australia, Canada China, Europe, the Middle East, and the US to participate in EcoSeRE.   

Results/Conclusions

The overarching question driving the design of EcoSeRE is: “How do terrestrial ecosystems differ in their sensitivity to changes in precipitation inputs and can we infer mechanisms from a coordinated multi-site experiment?” We will adopt the Nutrient Network (NutNet) model for designing and implementing this distributed experiment. The NutNet model is based on the consistent implementation of experimental treatments and sampling protocols at all sites, facilitating synthesis of results at the network level. To maximize participation, the core design must be simple and relatively inexpensive. Therefore, the core treatment of EcoSeRE will be a common reduced rainfall amount, because drought is forecast to increase in frequency and magnitude across most ecosystems and it can be effectively and consistently imposed across a range of sites at low cost. However, the EcoSeRE design also will be flexible - accommodating additional precipitation manipulations (additions of rainfall, increased rainfall variability, etc.), as well as other treatments. The design of EcoSeRE will be finalized in 2013, and a primary goal of is to allow for inclusion of a broad a range of ecosystem types (desert, grasslands, shrublands, forests, tundra, etc.) in the network.