Transplant Experiments - a Powerful Method to Study Climate Change Impacts

Abstract

This chapter identifies the way climate change responses that have been carried out to date with an emphasis on transplant experiments including: adaptation to a warmer climate; potential of range shifts; changes in phenology; shifts in species interactions; disentangling genotypic and phenotypic responses; and shifts in communities. Transplant experiments can be useful tools to experimentally investigate the potential of pole-or upwards range expansion, equator wards range contraction or contractions on both ends. To investigate the role of plant-insect interactions in driving range dynamics, plant species can be transplanted within the current range and beyond into the expanding range; impacts of the main herbivores can then be investigated over time and under natural field conditions. While field transplant experiments are very time- and labour-intensive and relatively rarely used, they offer a valuable complement to other commonly used approaches to study climate change, including species distribution modelling, observations along gradients and glasshouse experiments.