Changes in precipitation regimes and extreme events can cause ecosystem transitions, increase transport of nutrients and pollutants to downstream ecosystems, and overwhelm the ability of natural systems to mitigate harm to people from these events.
Thus, shifts in plant phenology are an appropriate bioindicator to map early signs of ecosystem transitions under climate change.
When the large herbivores disappeared, the ecosystem transitioned to today's mossy tundra and taiga that is beginning to melt and release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Thus, phenology is useful as a primary tool for mapping early signs of ecosystem transitions under climate change across areas of large spatial extend.
Second, EGS studies often neglect the economic aspects of marginality, ecosystem transitions and substitution effects (Fisher et al. 2008; Bateman et al. 2011; Farley 2012), and sometimes fail to consider socially relevant and stakeholder-oriented approaches (Cowling et al. 2008; Reed et al. 2009).
While a number of studies have measured how single species may respond to atmospheric and climatic changes, we know little about how ecosystems transitioning from fields to forest may respond.
Predicting the response of ecosystems — especially ecosystems in transition — to projected climatic change is a compelling but formidable challenge.
Faunal effects tend to be greatest in ecosystems under transition, e.g. ecosystem developing after some disturbance during primary or secondary succession.
While previous experiments have focused on how established grassland and forested ecosystems respond to global changes, this experiment focused on an ecosystem in transition to demonstrate that atmospheric and climatic change can alter the dynamics of ecosystem succession, and potentially, carbon sequestration.
Translating them into practice represents an unavoidable challenge – in which we are aided, fortunately, by the development of methodologies that incorporate complexity and uncertainty into the making and implementation of policies (e.g. adaptive management, ecosystem management, transition management; Christensen et al. 1996; Brugge and Raak 2007; Brock and Carpenter 2007).
In other ecosystems, the transition from grassland and cropland to secondary forest may result in a gain of soil carbon of up to 50 Mg C ha-1[42].
