EXPERIMENTAL VENUE AND ESTIMATION OF INTERACTION STRENGTH: REPLY

Since the 1960s, experimentation has progressed from a rarity to the inferential underpinning of most ecological studies. As experimental techniques proliferate it is critical to ask whether and how the decisions we make as experimenters affect outcomes. In their Comment, Chalcraft et al. (2005) present a multifaceted argument against an experiment (Skelly 2002) in which I evaluated the effect of venue on estimates of interaction strength. Much of their critique boils down to a disagreement regarding the hypothesis evaluated in the original paper (Skelly 2002). The remainder of the comment raises a number of questions concerning the conduct of the experiment. I appreciate the opportunity to discuss issues so critical to strategies of experimental design and hope that this exchange will contribute to improvements in ecological experimentation.