ALBERT

Description: When INHIGEO was born at Yerevan in 1967, it was agreed that field excursions would be an integral part of its activities. Although the bylaw that was adopted to this effect has since lapsed, the practice of combining meetings and excursions has continued. Meeting venues and the excursions associated with them are suggested by members in the host country and their organization is very much a local responsibility. Although the meetings commonly have a theme specific to them, the excursions may be more general depending on what can be achieved in the general vicinity of the venue and the interests and specializations of those running them. While it is accepted practice to visit geologically important sites, there is also a recognition that participants often appreciate the inclusion of localities or monuments of historical and cultural interest. This reflects the professional breadth of INHIGEO's membership (whose main disciplines span the geosciences as well as the history of science, in addition to some other fields) and also acknowledges the general understanding that geology, like every science, develops within the cultural milieus where it is practised. Excursions organized with specifically historical objectives respond to a variety of ideas about the goals of historical understanding, ranging along a scientific–historical spectrum. Excursions may be short, lasting from a few hours to a half or even a full day (these are frequently held during the course of the meeting); longer excursions may last up to a week or even more and are almost always scheduled either prior to or after the close of the meeting sessions. Whatever their duration, INHIGEO excursions have always proved to be educational and enlightening and are often among the most memorable of a meeting's experiences.

Description: To understand and forecast biological responses to climate change, scientists frequently use field experiments that alter temperature and precipitation. Climate manipulations can manifest in complex ways, however, challenging interpretations of biological responses. We reviewed publications to compile a database of daily plot-scale climate data from 15 active-warming experiments. We find that the common practices of analysing treatments as mean or categorical changes (e.g. warmed vs.unwarmed) masks important variation in treatment effects over space and time. Our synthesis showed that measured mean warming, in plots with the same target warming within a study, differed by up to 1.6 Celsius degrees (63% of target), on average, across six studies with blocked designs. Variation was high across sites and designs: for example, plots differed by 1.1Celsius degrees (47% of target) on average, for infrared studies with feedback control (n = 3) vs. by 2.2 Celsius degrees (80% of target) on average for infrared with constant wattage designs (n = 2). Warming treatments produce non-temperature effects as well, such as soil drying. The combination of these direct and indirect effects is complex and can have important biological consequences. With a case study of plant phenology across five experiments in our database, we show how accounting for drier soils with warming tripled the estimated sensitivity of budburst to temperature. We provide recommendations for future analyses, experimental design,and data sharing to improve our mechanistic understanding from climate change experiments, and thus their utility to accurately forecast species' responses.