I was reading this interesting study on the impact of fear on the stability of a food web which led me to start thinking about principles of sound experimental design, and how such designs can yield valuable insight into a variety of systems, natural or man made. From the authors:
When it comes to conserving biodiversity and maintaining healthy ecosystems, fear has its uses. By inspiring fear, the very existence of large carnivores on the landscape, in and of itself, can provide a critical ecosystem service human actions cannot fully replace, making it essential to maintain or restore large carnivores for conservation purposes on this basis alone.
The experimental design behind this study was fascinating. Using two islands off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, the team setup an experiment:
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