Fig 1. Using mesocosms to parameterize and refine climate-biodiversity models.

Mesocosm experiments can be used to improve predictions of the impact of climate change on individual species and whole communities by parameterizing metapopulation and metacommunity models and by testing and refining population and community ecology theory. The figure is described in detail in Box 1. Photos in panel A show the Metatron infrastructure used to study demographic responses to warming among common lizards (Zootoca vivipara) [14]. Panel B shows the outdoor mesocosm experiment used to determine the impact of warming on the metacommunity dynamics of phytoplankton [20].