Silwood mesocosm facility
STANDARDIZED PROTOCOLS FOR MESOCOSM SAMPLING
This website contains all the information on protocols and the study site necessary for the Silwood Mesocosms practical conducted at Silwood Park for the BSc Biological Sciences students. If you have any questions, please contact the course director (information on BlackBoard). All necessary worksheets and printables can be found on BlackBoard as well, but please refer to this site for sampling technique instructions and fieldwork related media. Check the About section for more on the Silwood Mesocosms' history and what the experimental design is. If you need information for the other practicals, you can find it via the Other Practicals menu option (top of the page) or BlackBoard.
ABOUT
The full impact of rapid environmental changes on natural ecosystems remain poorly understood as complex interactions between biological systems add emergent properties that can only be understood using an interdisciplinary and holistic approach.
Artificial ponds (mesocosms) at Silwood Park are helping to assess the impacts of warming, drought and chemical pollution in freshwater systems by studying multiple levels of biological organisation, from genes to food webs and whole ecosystems.
In collaboration with
