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SITES AquaNet : An open infrastructure for mesocosm experiments with high frequency sensor monitoring across lakes

Urrutia-Cordero, P. LU ; Langvall, O. ; Blomkvist, P. ; Angeler, D. G. ; Bertilsson, S. ; Colom Montero, W. ; Eklöv, P. ; Aagaard Jakobsen, N. ; Klemedtsson, L. and Laudon, H. , et al. (2021) In Limnology and Oceanography: Methods 19(6). p.385-400
Abstract

For aquatic scientists mesocosm experiments are important tools for hypothesis testing as they offer a compromise between experimental control and realism. Here we present a new mesocosm infrastructure—SITES AquaNET—located in five lakes connected to field stations in Sweden that cover a ~760 km latitudinal gradient. SITES AquaNet overcomes major hindrances in aquatic experimental research through: (i) openness to the scientific community, (ii) the potential to implement coordinated experiments across sites and time, and (iii) high-frequency measurements (temperature, photosynthetic photon flux density, turbidity and dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a and phycocyanin concentrations) with an autonomous sensor system. Moreover, the... (More)

For aquatic scientists mesocosm experiments are important tools for hypothesis testing as they offer a compromise between experimental control and realism. Here we present a new mesocosm infrastructure—SITES AquaNET—located in five lakes connected to field stations in Sweden that cover a ~760 km latitudinal gradient. SITES AquaNet overcomes major hindrances in aquatic experimental research through: (i) openness to the scientific community, (ii) the potential to implement coordinated experiments across sites and time, and (iii) high-frequency measurements (temperature, photosynthetic photon flux density, turbidity and dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a and phycocyanin concentrations) with an autonomous sensor system. Moreover, the infrastructure provides operational guidance and sensor expertise from technical staff, and connections to a multi-layered monitoring programme (“SITES Water”) for each lake. This enables ecological observations from whole lake ecosystems to be compared with experimental studies aiming at disentangling major drivers and mechanisms underlying observed changes. Here we describe the technical properties of the infrastructure along with possibilities for experimental manipulations to tackle pressing issues in aquatic ecology and global change science. As a proof of concept, we also present a first mesocosm experiment across all five field sites with a cross-factorial design to evaluate responses of the sensor measurements to press/bottom-up (constant light reduction) and pulse/top-down (temporary fish predation) disturbances. This demonstrates the suitability of the infrastructure and autonomous sensor system to host modularized experiments and exemplifies the power and advantages of the approach to integrate a network of mecsocosm facilities with manageable costs across large geographic areas.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Limnology and Oceanography: Methods
volume
19
issue
6
pages
16 pages
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • scopus:85105671103
ISSN
1541-5856
DOI
10.1002/lom3.10432
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Funding Information: SITES AquaNet is a thematic program within the Swedish Infrastructure for Ecosystem Science (SITES). The program is financially supported by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet, VR) and the organizations involved in SITES AquaNet, that is, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Gothenburg University, Uppsala University and Sweden Water Research. PUC supported his work with an International Postdoc Grant (2017‐06421) from VR. We thank Hélène Hagerman for designing Fig. 1 and Holger Villwock for guidance and help in preparing and uploading the data in the SITES Data Portal.
id
2e2fe668-dc67-44be-9f97-09bca7c4e309
date added to LUP
2021-05-27 12:17:49
date last changed
2023-11-08 14:34:13
@article{2e2fe668-dc67-44be-9f97-09bca7c4e309,
  abstract     = {{<p>For aquatic scientists mesocosm experiments are important tools for hypothesis testing as they offer a compromise between experimental control and realism. Here we present a new mesocosm infrastructure—SITES AquaNET—located in five lakes connected to field stations in Sweden that cover a ~760 km latitudinal gradient. SITES AquaNet overcomes major hindrances in aquatic experimental research through: (i) openness to the scientific community, (ii) the potential to implement coordinated experiments across sites and time, and (iii) high-frequency measurements (temperature, photosynthetic photon flux density, turbidity and dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll a and phycocyanin concentrations) with an autonomous sensor system. Moreover, the infrastructure provides operational guidance and sensor expertise from technical staff, and connections to a multi-layered monitoring programme (“SITES Water”) for each lake. This enables ecological observations from whole lake ecosystems to be compared with experimental studies aiming at disentangling major drivers and mechanisms underlying observed changes. Here we describe the technical properties of the infrastructure along with possibilities for experimental manipulations to tackle pressing issues in aquatic ecology and global change science. As a proof of concept, we also present a first mesocosm experiment across all five field sites with a cross-factorial design to evaluate responses of the sensor measurements to press/bottom-up (constant light reduction) and pulse/top-down (temporary fish predation) disturbances. This demonstrates the suitability of the infrastructure and autonomous sensor system to host modularized experiments and exemplifies the power and advantages of the approach to integrate a network of mecsocosm facilities with manageable costs across large geographic areas.</p>}},
  author       = {{Urrutia-Cordero, P. and Langvall, O. and Blomkvist, P. and Angeler, D. G. and Bertilsson, S. and Colom Montero, W. and Eklöv, P. and Aagaard Jakobsen, N. and Klemedtsson, L. and Laudon, H. and Liljebladh, B. and Lundgren, M. and Parkefelt, L. and Kelpsiene, E. and Pierson, D. and Rankinen, J. and Striebel, M. and Tranvik, L. J. and Weslien, P. and Hillebrand, H. and Langenheder, S.}},
  issn         = {{1541-5856}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{06}},
  number       = {{6}},
  pages        = {{385--400}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Limnology and Oceanography: Methods}},
  title        = {{SITES AquaNet : An open infrastructure for mesocosm experiments with high frequency sensor monitoring across lakes}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/lom3.10432}},
  doi          = {{10.1002/lom3.10432}},
  volume       = {{19}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}