Two foundational questions about sustainability are “How are ecosystems and the services
they provide going to change in the future?” and “How do human decisions affect these …

Ecology is a synthetic discipline benefiting from open access to data from the earth, life, and
social sciences. Technological challenges exist, however, due to the dispersed and …

When scientists from two or more disciplines work together on related problems, they often
face what we call 'science friction'. As science becomes more data-driven, collaborative, and …

Comparative functional ecology seeks to understand why and how ecological systems and
their components operate differently across environments. Although traditionally used in …

Ecology is evolving rapidly and increasingly changing into a more open, accountable,
interdisciplinary, collaborative and data-intensive science. Discovering, integrating and …

Data sharing is the practice of making data available for use by others. Ecologists are
increasingly generating and sharing an immense volume of data. Such data may serve to …

Freshwater ecosystems constitute only a small fraction of the planet's water resources, yet
support much of its diversity, with freshwater fish accounting for more species than birds …

Phenology is the study of recurring life‐cycle events, classic examples being the flowering of
plants and animal migration. Phenological responses are increasingly relevant for …

The increasing availability of massive volumes of scientific data requires new synthetic
analysis techniques to explore and identify interesting patterns that are otherwise not …

Suboptimal availability of water and nutrients is a primary limitation to plant growth in
terrestrial ecosystems. The acquisition of soil resources by plant roots is therefore an …