Macrosystems Limnology and Beyond: Re-envisioning the Scale of Limnology
Past limnological studies have traditionally focused on local waterbodies and their watersheds. Whereas individually monitoring local ecosystems over decades has produced a wealth of foundational knowledge, recent advances in ecological knowledge and theory and the emergence of global change stressors and “big data” have spurred limnologists to think beyond local sites and increasingly across landscapes, regions, and continents. In this chapter, we describe the “5 Ws and How” of macrosystems limnology, an emerging subdiscipline that recognizes freshwater ecosystems as components of larger, integrated systems influenced by aquatic, terrestrial, and atmospheric components and processes at multiple spatial and temporal scales.