Have statistically significant climate trends been detected at the given LTER site, ecological region or other study area?
2. What (if any) significant ecological trends/responses to climate change or variability have been established in the ecosystem under consideration? 3. How does the last 20-50 years compare to longer-term perspective? 4. What mechanisms or principles are associated with these observations? (Why?) 5. What other ecosystems can be identified for which these mechanisms may be relevant? 6. What other potential ecosystem vulnerabilities can be identified in an environment of continued/enhanced climate change? 7. To what extent are ecological consequences predictable from climate forecasts? The results of fifty years of study at the H. J. Andrews Long-Term Ecological Research site permit us to give answers to these questions. Before doing this, a general description of the climate of the Andrews is provided. This description is largely based on that in the LTER CLIMDES project and more details can be found at http://www.lternet.edu/network/committees/climate/climdes/climate.html. The general
