The SITES 2023 Calendar theme is “Data in Focus”. The openly available data produced within SITES and stored on the SITES Data Portal is the “golden thread” of the infrastructure, allowing users access to ecosystem data that covers diverse habitats and climate zones across geographical gradients in Sweden. Each month follow along as we highlight a unique SITES dataset.
Bolmen Research Station, is an associated station to SITES AquaNet – an associated station benefits from SITES coordinated activities, in this case SITES AquaNet, and has access to SITES network and knowledge and the ability to mobilize and openly share station data via the SITES Data Portal. Bolmen Research Station is located in Tiraholm, by Lake Bolmen in Hylte municipality. The research at the station primarily focuses on environmental monitoring, fish conservation and management, water conservation and the effects of climate change on freshwater ecosystems.
Bolmen has participated in several SITES AquaNet experiments, including the first pilot experiment in 2017. This month, data from the 2017 AquaNet pilot experiment at Bolmen is featured. The experiment investigated the interactive effects of bottom-up (a reduction in light availability) and top-down (fish predation) disturbances on the stability of plankton community composition (bacterio-, phyto- and zoo-plankton) and ecosystem functioning. The experiments consisted of a fourfold replication of a full-factorial design with no disturbance (control), light reduction as a press disturbance (constant), fish predation as a pulse disturbance (temporary) and press and pulse disturbances combined. Each mesocosm enclosure was equipped with sensors and data logging system to measure in real-time environmental parameters, such as dissolved oxygen, temperature, photosynthetic active radiation, Chlorophyll a (as seen below), phycocyanin and turbidity.
Link to Data: https://meta.fieldsites.se/objects/fFHR9J_5xa-Bm2bxm0gz1J2E
The results from the 2017 experiments at all SITES AquaNet stations are available as a data collection on the SITES Data Portal and published in Urrutia-Cordero et al. 2021.
The graph shows sub-hourly Chlorophyll a data, from the mesocosm experiment run in 2017 at Lake Bolmen, aggregated for the four treatments applied to the experiment (Control, Light, Fish, Light & Fish). As evident in the graph, Chlorophyll a concentration fluctuated over time with differences in responses between the four treatments. The photo displays the AquaNet platform and mesocosm enclosures on Lake Bolmen, where each mesocosm is equipped with sensors, all connected to a central data logging system.