There must be few expressions in the modern English language more disturbing than the recently coined “ecological surprise”. The phrase is becoming familiar among scientists who study global change, and refers to the potential for developments that could catch us off guard. Stephen Jackson of the University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY) and guest editor of this Special Issue of Frontiers, along with co-author Jack Williams at the University of Wisconsin (Madison, WI), address the topic in these pages, using equally unsettling terms, like “no-analog communities” and “the reshuffling of species” (p 475–482). From their background in paleoecology – the reconstruction of ecosystems of the past – they argue that our quickly changing climate may present us with completely new ecological scenarios. The review gave me some idea of what they meant, but like a timid horror-film fan who peeks through her fingers just as the violins reach their crescendo, I wanted to know the whole story. So I called Jackson to ask what, in particular, did he and Williams mean by their reference – in that subtitle, “Here there be dragons” – to the monsters that traditionally appear in uncharted areas of ancient cartographers' maps? Had I missed something in my compulsive reading of climate-change news? Do we also need to worry about new and possibly fire-breathing species cropping up? Jackson reassured me – sort of – on that point. Not necessarily completely new species, at least in the next century or so. Evolution doesn't move quite that fast. Instead, what should give us pause – specifically, a long-overdue pause in our greenhouse-gas-pumping, landscape-altering ways – is the specter of all but unpredictable interactions between new climate patterns and existing species, which could make human life more difficult and dangerous. “Basically, we're heading into new territory climatically, really, into uncharted waters”, he explained. “Certainly within the experience of western society, there haven't been climates like this, nor have there been, quite possibly, in the history of our species, or even in the history of the ecosystems of the world.” Add in invasive species and landscape-transformation and, according to Jackson, “It's like playing poker with 26 jokers instead of two”. “By the time the threat was recognized, it was too late to do anything about it. So now, resource managers are really scared about losing the characteristic Sonoran desert to a buffelgrass prairie”, said Jackson More broadly, Jackson worries about other potentially surprising impacts of a changing climate. “We're now in year nine of a very severe drought that appears to be different from other droughts we've known, for instance, in the 1890s and 1930s. We just don't have a plan, based on past experience.” Last year, wildfires raced across Wyoming grasslands and forests in the middle of April, an anomaly Jackson chalks up to a combination of drought and the earlier-than-usual advent of springtime's warmer temperatures, with moisture evaporating more quickly. “Our analysis indicates that we'll see more and more of that kind of thing manifesting itself as we go further and further off the map of our experience”, Jackson warned. Williams was quick to add that the phrase “ecological surprise” needn't be wholly negative, at least for some species. But, on closer questioning, the only immediate candidate he could think of was the bark beetle, which has recently and famously proliferated in western forests, due primarily to warming winters. As for our own species, which depends so heavily on the services healthy nature provides, we've been rather slow to grasp how quickly the natural order of things is changing. Jackson and Williams argue that we need to improve our forecasting methods immediately – if not sooner. And, of course, that's not all we need to do. “Our current models really aren't yet capable of predicting what we face in the future”, Jackson told me. “And I'm not sure how quickly we can get them up to the task. So, the way I see it is, if you care about natural resources, and the goods and services we get from ecosystems, the best thing to do is to minimize the damage and focus on prevention rather than cure. Because we simply don't know enough about what the disease is going to look like to provide the cures.”