LAUSR

Significance Recent advances in ecology show evidence that multiple environmental drivers interact and that their impact on community and ecosystem functioning cannot be predicted from single-driver studies. However, ecologists still largely disregard the role that fluctuations in these drivers (i.e., changes above/below mean trends) play in modulating the magnitude and direction of global-change impacts. Through a 30-year quantitative review, we show that contrary to the established paradigm, additive effects are more frequent when environmental fluctuations are considered in multiple-driver (i.e., acidification, hyperpoxia and hypoxia, light, resource supply, or temperature) scenarios, although such effects are strongly dependent on trophic strategy and phylogeny. Our findings stress the need to consider environmental variability in ecological studies and conservation plans to better predict the impacts of global climate change.