Experimental Design
The 96 pond mesocosms are artificial tanks about 2m diameter and 1 m deep. They were set above ground in Autumn 2015 and then filled with a thin layer of sand and gravel and with tap water to the top. Tanks are set in 8 columns (A to H) and 12 rows (1 to 12) about 4m apart from each other (see figure below).
During March 2016, all ponds were seeded with a similar pool of freshwater organisms. Seeding consisted on adding to each pond a combination of water and sediment from creeks in Silwood Park and neighbouring regions. Tap water was used to fill the rest of each pond.
On 5th of September 2018 warming treatments started. Ponds are warmed from 1 to 8 oC above ambient water temperature: 36 ponds with ambient temperature, 4 ponds at +1oC, 14 at +2oC, 4 at +3oC, 22 at +4oC, 4 at +5oC, 4 at +6oC, 4 at +7oC and 4 at +8oC. The mesocosm control system was designed and implemented by Martin Rouen from Lakeland Instrumentation Ltd.
The 32 pond mesocosms are a set of artificial 1000L above ground tanks that in Summer 2017 were filled with a thin layer of sand and gravel and then with tap water to the top.
Core Data
Core data includes:
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Metagenomic and metatranscriptome data from ponds to characterize the microbial community composition and gene expression with focus on genes related with C and N cycling.
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Rates of breakdown of leaf-litter and cellulose.
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Ecosystem respiration and primary production
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N2 fixation, N2 and N2O production, plus production and oxidation of methane
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Invertebrate sampling
Find here the metadata file for this experiment (71KB)