It's not clear whether findings in one area apply to all, or if findings here would be mirrored at larger scales. Harte is critical of the prevailing approach to scale up from smaller, more controlled experiments, and he intends to study the method even as he employs it. Finally, the complexity and contingency of the responses and the need for expertise in many fields create imposing challenges to any effort to cleanly predict overall ecosystem effects. But I don't think there's any other group in the world that's as capable of tackling this as ours. The unique advantage of the Ecosystem Sciences Division is the range of expertise.
Most researchers try to break down the complexity into pieces they can study with some confidence.
The Division includes scientists who scrutinize soil chemistry, gas exchange between soil and plants, as well as gas flux between plants and the atmosphere. Still others look for changes at the landscape scale. Experts in remote sensing and geographic information system technology work on ways to extract from existing images new information essential to ecological studies. Historically, university-based research has not been known for crossing disciplines. Scientists with expertise in one field have trouble understanding those in another, let alone working together.