Opportunity to participate in a large scale mesocosm experiment at five SITES AquaNet lakes in summer 2022

01 November 2021

SITES AquaNet plans for a coordinated mesocosm experiment on the effect of run-off variability in five lakes next summer. A call for researchers and students to participate will open soon.

SITES AquaNet will soon launch a call within the EU project AQUACOSM-plus to invite research groups, individual researchers and students to apply to join a coordinated mesocosm experiment at all five SITES stations participating in the AquaNet Program. The experiment aims to involve many national and international researcher and students in the planning, implementation and analysis of the experiment.
 
The scientific focus of the experiment will be to investigate how differences in run-off variability during summer precipitation events impact the transport of resources, such as organic matter and nutrients, into lakes, and thus affect the composition and function of lake communities. This is important to study as nutrient pulse variability is expected to increase in the future as precipitation events will become more extreme, due to stronger and flashier rainfall, floods, and extended periods with droughts. To address such questions, spatially coordinated experiments that look at responses to standardized manipulations with standardized equipment and methods are crucial tools. SITES AquaNet is well suited in this regard since the program is designed to implement standardized experiments across lakes. Moreover, the mesocosms at each station allow for temporal high-frequency measurements of phytoplankton and cyanobacterial biomass and ecosystem metabolism, such as primary production and respiration.
 
You are welcome to apply to join us in this exciting mission of running a large, coordinated experiment! AQUACOSM-plus provides Transnational Access (TA) free of charge to approved users to at least one of the partner facilities, including costs for travel, housing and meal expenses. Applications will soon be accepted for the 2022 SITES AquaNet-AQUACOSM-plus project.

More information about the experimental set-up and the application.