Using Experiments to understand the drivers of biodiversity change

Over the last decades, several large-scale experimental facilities have been set up to study the drivers and consequences of biodiversity change. These roughly fall into two categories: First, so-called "biodiversity experiments" deliberately manipulate the number of species present in a system and study effects of changes in biodiversity on ecosystem processes and community structure. Second, classical land-use and climate change experiments have addressed the opposite, i.e. how human activities alter components of biodiversity and associated ecosystem processes. Here, I provide an overview of biodiversity experiments, climate and land-use change experiments to show how these can be successfully used to answer current questions on if, how and why biodiversity is affected by human activities. Additionally, I will show how novel experiments, combining the virtues of biodiversity and land-use change experiments, can help to design biodiversity-friendly landscapes and ultimately enhance and sustain terrestrial biodiversity.