New theoretical approaches, grounded in field observations and experimental manipulations, are increasingly providing improved understanding of the response of organisms to environmental changes, for processes operating at organ level, through whole organisms to ecosystems. This provides a basis for addressing functional biodiversity within communities, the different timescales of ecosystem response to changing environments, and the feedbacks between ecosystems and their environment. Since these changes and feedbacks regulate carbon, nutrient and energy flows, this in turn provides a basis for developing new and simpler models of the biosphere and its interactions in the earth system.

Addressing these complex issues requires an interdisciplinary perspective. This session will explore new approaches to understanding the two-way interactions between the biosphere and the environment across terrestrial, aquatic and marine ecosystems – encompassing observational, theory and modelling perspectives. We invite contributions that examine shifts in traits and community composition across different ecosystems. We welcome contributions that address this through experiments, observations, empirical analysis and conceptual, eco-evolutionary or process-based modelling. By examining work on soil communities, terrestrial vegetation and freshwater and marine ecosystems, the session aims to foster a cross-system perspective on ecosystem functioning.