THE RATE OF EXPERIMENTAL MICROCOSMS IN ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH

A number of recent and important developments in community ecology hav e been derived from experiments conducted in microcosms. Studies with microcosms have addressed a broad range of phenomena, including climat e change, biodiversity, assembly rules, habitat restoration, trophic d ynamics and mycorrhizal associations. The common factor linking these studies is that they manipulate an individual environmental axis and e xplore the role that axis plays in structuring communities. We discuss six recent studies to illustrate the use and design of microcosms for community ecology research.