MESOAQUA Mesocosm Facilities
There are six Partner Institutions in MESOAQUA and together they aim to combine experience and excellence in mesocosm work with the scientific need for access to contrasting environments.
1 Bergen-Espegrend
The Norwegian National Mesocosm Centre, Espegrend, Universitetet i Bergen (UiB), Norway is the coordinator of MESOAQUA. UiB offers a facility that includes mesocosms both on land and in the sheltered fjord. With excellent close-by laboratory and dormitory, this facility has been extensively used for transnational access during decades. The location in coastal North Atlantic waters of western Norway provides access to a fairly typical meso-haline, meso-trophic, temperate, coastal environment, excellent for most studies not focusing on extreme environments. Read more...
2 Kiel KOSMOS & Kiel Indoor
Leibniz-Institut für Meereswissenschaften an der Universität Kiel, (IFM-GEOMAR), Germany provides Transnational Access to both an indoor mesocosm facility (IFM-GEOMAR Indoor facility) and the opportunity to test the KOSMOS system of free-floating mesocosms under the Arctic conditions of Kongsfjorden, West – Spitsbergen. KOSMOS will provide the project with a mesocosm setup that can be used in the analysis of climate change in the Arctic. Read more... The Kiel Indoor facility consists of 12 mesocosms with 1.3 m3 volume in 4 temperature-regulated rooms, in close proximity to brackish waters of the south Baltic Sea. Read more...
3 Montpellier/Sète-MEDIMEER
The MEDIMEER (MEDIterranean platform for Marine Ecosystem Experimental Research) at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS ECOLAG), France, offers access to a permanent platform with up to 12 in situ pelagic mesocosms (maximum diameter 1.2 m, depth 3 m) and 2 pelago-benthic mesocosms (maximum 5 m wide and 1 m deep) including laboratory and dormitory facilities. It is situated in the western Mediterranean Thau lagoon, at Sète. CNRS ECOLAG will also develop an alternative concept for free-floating mesocosms. Read more…
4 Heraklion-CRETACOSMOS
The CRETACOSMOS facility at the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), Greece, is a new facility that will offer ten outdoor land-based 2-3 m3 mesocosm tanks that allow experimentation at the ecosystem level, using at the unique Eastern Mediterranean environment known for its characteristics of extreme oligotrophy and P-limited productivity. With biological standing stocks and rates at the limit of standard measurement techniques, mesocosm research in oligotrophic environments requires special expertise. Such expertise is provided by the HCMR. Read more…
5 Umeå-UMSC
The Umeå Marine Sciences Centre (UMSC) at the Umeå Universitet (UmU), Sweden hosts a unique indoor mesocosm facility, comprising 12 insulated 5 m height cylindrical tanks, fully computer controlled, with possibilities to simulate different hydrographic and light conditions, including ice-covered winter situations. UMSC is the low-salinity end of the spectrum in the Northern Baltic, and it provides PhD courses centered on the mesocosm facility. Read more…
6 Ny Ålesund–KBML
The Kings Bay Marine Laboratory, run by Kings Bay AS (KBML), Ny Ålesund, Svalbard/ Spitsbergen, Norway, is the northernmost (79oN) marine lab in the world and offers dry-, wet-, ecotox-, isotope- and tox-free labs, temperature controlled rooms etc. It offers access to a setup of 10 x 1 m3 closed in situ mesocosms designed by UiB (see Nature 455: 387-390). In cooperation with IFM-GEOMAR, KBML also offers an opportunity to test the KOSMOS system under the extreme conditions of Kongsfjorden in 2010. Read more …
