Why we must forecast, starting today

We live on a non-stationary, unreplicated planet that is rapidly moving outside the envelope of natural variability into a no-analog world.  In this world the essential ecological questions are “How are ecosystems and the services they provide going to change in the future” and “How do human decisions affect this trajectory?”  These are fundamentally questions about ecological forecasting.

An iterative, near-term forecasting approach will not only make ecology more relevant to society, but learning by doing is the fastest route to driving basic science forward. The time is ripe -- we need to start today.