Center Seeks Synthesis to Make Ecology More Useful

Ecology is supposed to be the most synthetic of the biological disciplines, but in the past few decades, many ecological studies have drifted toward a short-term, small-scale focus. How can the field get back to its roots as a synthetic science, and so answer broad environmental questions? Officials at a new center in Santa Barbara, California, think they can help by examining ecology's big questions—without collecting any new data.