This year we could again offer [Transnational Access (TA) in the framework of AQUACOSM-plus](/transnational-access) at [LMU](https://www.lmu.de/en/)/[SLS](https://www.scientificlabs.co.uk/). Among the TA users were group leaders and trainees from different countries, including France, Italy and Slovenia. Dr. Ziga Ogorelec from Slovenia, however, was not only a TA user at SLS with his very interesting project; with his experiment we could successfully test our light weight mobile mesocosm system at the same time. The aim of Zigas's study was to disentangle the top-down effects of individual zooplankton species or groups on phytoplankton. Specifically, he wanted to disentangle the role of cyclopoid copepods, calanoid copepods, and daphniids in affecting phytoplankton biomass and composition. In addition, he wanted to evaluate the strength of cascading effects of invertebrate predators, like Chaoborus sp. in the pelagic environment.

The top-down effects of zooplankton on phytoplankton are of crucial importance for the function of lake food webs and the large amount of research conducted up to date has led to an ongoing debate. However, the role of individual zooplankton species or even higher taxa is still unclear. Due to the mixed effects of many zooplankton groups from field studies and due to difficulties of including the entire phytoplankton community in lab experiments, the role of individual zooplankton species is difficult to disentangle. Mesocosms are therefore providing a tool to establish experimental systems allowing both, a controlled zooplankton community composition but also natural environmental conditions and phytoplankton communities.

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<div class="photo-credit">Ziga Ogorelec preparing mesocosm bags</div>
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Ziga installed in total 35 mesocosms using our new construction, which was perfectly suited for his purposes. This summer we struggled a lot with unforeseen extreme weather events and in situ studies were difficult to conduct.

However, our design defied the difficult weather conditions well and we were able to make improvements to our construction to prepare it for the joint research activity in Romania next year. The experiment was successfully completed, and we were able to collect very interesting data. Furthermore, we could establish a new promising cooperation with Ziga!

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<div class="photo-credit">TA user Ziga Ogorelec (left) and his group member Eva (lower row left) with the supporting team from LMU/SLS.</div>
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Who ate the Phytoplankton? A mesocosm experiment at LMU/SLS about the impact of major zooplankton grazer groups on phytoplankton

An in situ mesocosm experiment to simulate a “terrestrial input of extreme event” in coastal waters is carrying out from 03 May for several weeks in the frame of the French ANR national project entitled: Microbial responses to terrestrial dissolved organic matter (DOMt) input in freshwater and marine ecosystems in a changing environment (RESTORE, National Coordinator: Fabien Joux). The DOMt was prepared with the oak forest soil, characteristic of the region around MEDIMEER in the south of France, which was mixed with the freshwater of a river near the MEDIMEER installations and maturated during the two weeks before to be added to the mesocosms filled with the marine water.
This national marine mesocosm experiment was also opened to AQUACOSM-plus Transnational Access which permitted and funded the participation of Dr. Carolina Cantoni from the Institute of Marine Sciences (CNR-ISMAR) of Trieste (Italy) in this mesocosm experiment to realise her project entitled "Dynamics of Total Alkalinity and pH during the Marine RESTORE Project". As Dr. Cantoni is one of the members of the European project <a href="https://www.jerico-ri.eu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">JERICO-S3</a> (Towards a joint European research infrastructure network for coastal observatories), and as this mesocosm experiment realising in the Pilot Supersite of North-Western Mediterranean Sea of <a href="https://www.jerico-ri.eu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">JERICO-S3</a>, her participation to AQUACOSM-plus TA serving also to establish for the first time a synergy between <a href="https://www.jerico-ri.eu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">JERICO-S3</a> observing community and AQUACOSM-plus mesocosm experimenting community.

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<div class="photo-credit">Dr. Carolina Cantoni (second from left) and other participants from MARBEC, MEDIMEER (OSU OREME) and LOMIC laboratories to the Marine RESTORE mesocosm experiment realising on MEDIMEER infrastructure at Sète (May 2021).</div>
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Behzad Mostajir and Francesca Vidussi: leaders of marine RESTORE mesocosm experiment (<a href="mailto:Behzad.Mostajir@umontpellier.fr">Behzad.Mostajir@umontpellier.fr</a> &amp; <a href="mailto:Francesca.Vidussi@cnrs.fr">Francesca.Vidussi@cnrs.fr</a>).

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Marine plankton community responses to terrestrial dissolved organic matter input realising by CNRS-MARBEC on MEDIMEER infrastructure

The EU Research Infrastructure project <a href="/about-aquacosm-plus">AQUACOSM-plus</a> has opened the second call for Transnational Access (TA) to more than 60 aquatic mesocosm facilities throughout Europe in 2022.
AQUACOSM-plus provides funding to academic and industrial (including SMEs) research groups, individual scientists, experts, professionals and university students from all over the world (up to 20% non-Europeans and associated countries) to:
<ul>
	<li>participate in mesocosm experiments that have been planned by the facility providers</li>
	<li>propose own ideas for mesocosm experiments in the partner facilities in cooperation with the local team</li>
</ul>
AQUACOSM-plus is a unique collaborative international project supporting experiments in various aquatic ecosystems, ranging from Sub-Arctic to the Mediterranean, from mountains to lowlands, from freshwater to marine, and from ultra-oligotrophic to hyper-eutrophic conditions, including benthic and pelagic systems.
AQUACOSM-plus aims to promote effective international scientific collaboration and technological knowledge transfer across traditional barriers between regions, countries and traditionally separated science disciplines, such as marine and freshwater research.
AQUACOSM-plus is enhancing collaboration among the European Environmental Research Infrastructures (RIs) by engaging in multidisciplinary joint research activities, some of which are open for participation in this call.
More information on the TA application process and deadlines for individual calls at the respective facilities can be found<a href="/transnational-access"> here.</a>
<a href="/transnational-access"><img class="alignnone wp-image-2732" src="https://www.aquacosm.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/APPLY-NOW-BUTTON-300x81.gif" alt="" width="200" height="54" /></a> 
Contact TA-Office: <a href="mailto:ta-plus@aquacosm.eu" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ta-plus@aquacosm.eu</a>
Dr. Stella A. Berger (Leader of the AQUACOSM-plus Transnational Access Programme) 
Dr. Tatiana Tsagaraki (Co-Leader of the AQUACOSM-plus Transnational Access Programme) 
Prof. Silke Langenheder (Co-Leader of the AQUACOSM-plus Transnational Access Programme)
COVID: All research facilities are following strict safety regulations. Additional restrictions may apply based on national regulations. Contact respective facility access providers for more information.

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Call for Transnational Access to European Aquatic Mesocosm Facilities in 2022

The second general assembly of the <a href="/about-aquacosm-plus">EU HORIZON 2020 AQUACOSM-plus project</a> was held 8-12 Nov in southern Turkey.
It was the first hybrid physical-online meeting in this project after the beginning of the global COVID-19 lockdowns.
It was an excellent opportunity to meet in person and welcome some of some of our new partners to the project. It was also the first meeting after the official end of the <a href="/aquacosm">AQUACOSM</a> project in August 2021.
<a href="/about-aquacosm-plus">AQUACOSM-plus</a> will build on the heritage and success of EU FP7 MESOAQUA and H2020 AQUACOSM projects, offering many expanded services and opportunities in EU and globally.
AQUACOSM-plus will provide opportunities for collaboration in mesocosm research through its extensive <a href="/transnational-access">Transnational Access</a> programme. Between 2021 and 2023 AQUACOSM-plus will offer &gt;13000 person-days of Transnational Access (TA) to more than 60 different leading and highly complementary European mesocosm facilities located at 28 AQUACOSM-plus partners throughout Europe. The AQUACOSM-plus mesocosm facilities represent a cross-section of European aquatic ecosystems ranging from Sub-Arctic to the Mediterranean, from mountains to lowlands, from freshwater to marine, and from ultra-oligotrophic to hyper-eutrophic conditions.
AQUACOSM-plus also expands on the previous projects by building the research infrastructure to include 10 new partners, activities for training early career scientists, promotion of Open Mesocosm Science, and the sharing of knowledge and technologies between academia, industry and governments.
AQUACOSM-plus will develop new technological capabilities to execute scenario-testing for Climate Change-related pressures on all aquatic ecosystems, and will enhance collaboration among the European Environmental Research Infrastructures (RIs) by engaging in multidisciplinary joint research activities.
The new, <a href="/transnational-access" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2022 AQUACOSM-plus Transnational Access call</a>, that will be announced in autumn 2021!

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Stay tuned!!!!

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AQUACOSM-plus project holds 2nd General Assembly in Turkey

Within the <a title="https://www.aquacosm.eu/
Click the link to open the URL in a new window." href="/aquacosm-plus" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AQUACOSM-plus</a> Workpackage 6 on Defining Grand Challenges in aquatic mesocosm research, Helmut Hillebrand (University of Oldenburg) and Silke Langenheder (Uppsala University) offer a Meta-Analysis Workshop in May 2021.
The aim of the workshop is 
i) to provide an overview on quantitative synthesis methods including systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and 
ii) to develop a theme for a joint analysis of experiments run in the consortium.  
The course runs in a flipped classroom format in three parts. 
1) After registration, you will receive a link to an online course that needs to be fully completed before May 12th. The course consists of four video sessions and explicit exercises in R. 
2) In a classroom session on May 12th (2 pm CET, max 2 hrs) you can ask questions on the online part. 
Afterwards, potential topics for a meta-analysis within AQUACOSM-plus will be discussed and a division of labor will be planned. 
3) The third part (the actual meta-analysis) will be conducted according to this plan after May 12th.
For participation please,
register <a title="https://t1p.de/tx86
Click the link to open the URL in a new window." href="https://t1p.de/tx86" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a> until APRIL 20th.
Virtual Event

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Facilities

Transnational Access

Metadata & Data

Papers & Reports

Knowledge Base

META-Analysis Workshop in May 2021 is Virtual and FREE

19th April 2021

Other News

Who ate the Phytoplankton? A mesocosm experiment at LMU/SLS about the impact of major zooplankton grazer groups on phytoplankton

Marine plankton community responses to terrestrial dissolved organic matter input realising by CNRS-MARBEC on MEDIMEER infrastructure

Call for Transnational Access to European Aquatic Mesocosm Facilities in 2022

AQUACOSM-plus project holds 2nd General Assembly in Turkey