We are studying the impacts of warming and extreme temperature events using an array of 96 pond mesocosms. On September 2018 we started a long-term warming experiment with treatments that match climate projections, including constant warming from 1 to 8oC above ambient temperature and events of periodic extreme warming that mimic heat waves. In 2019 chemical stressors will be also applied to a set of ponds. The Silwood Park pond mesocosms are part of the Ring of Fire project  that integrates information generated from a global collection of naturally warmed freshwater habitats across a circumpolar ring of geothermal activity, hundreds of large-scale artificial streams and ponds (mesocosms) in the field, and thousands of robotically-assembled microbial communities  in the laboratory (microcosms).

  

With a set of 32 pond mesocosms we aim to help understanding the effects or drought in freshwater systems. This experiment replicates the design used in a network of six mesocosm facilities located along a thermal gradient in the Iberian Peninsula (freshwater systems).

​

The Ring of Fire project is one of the experiments of The Grand Challenges in Ecosystems and the Environment Initiative (GCEE) and the Aquacosm, an international network of experimental infractrusctures that facilitates transnational research in marine and freshwater ecology.  This experiment by funded is NERC grants awarded to Professor Guy Woodward, Dr. Thomas Bell, Dr. Samraat Pawar, Dr. Alex J. Dumbrell, Professor Mark Trimmer and colleagues from Imperial College London, University of Essex, Queen Mary, University of London, and other institutions in the UK.