How can mesocosms help tackle grand ecological challenges in aquatic ecosystems? 🌊🌍
Check out our open-access Oikos Forum article, out today: 🔗 http://doi.org/10.1111/oik.11020
@oikosjournal.bsky.social
Check out our open-access Oikos Forum article, out today: 🔗 http://doi.org/10.1111/oik.11020
@oikosjournal.bsky.social
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We explore the opportunities that mesocosms offer in providing controlled, realistic and replicable environments for investigating novel solutions.
🔹 Restoration is a prolonged process which typically occurs at large spatial scales,
🔹 Connectivity is important in ecological recovery.
🔹Scaling the system to replicate larger-scale environments.
But when restoration can’t initially be tested at scale
🔹A ‘work small to think big’ approach can yield valuable information by first testing outcomes of habitat-scale restoration at smaller scales.
✅ Facilitating dispersal from a regional species pool, e.g., using open, flow-through systems
✅ Manually manipulating dispersal or incorporating a connectivity treatment to test its role in recovery.
🔹 Standardising methods of data generation
🔹 Improving cross-site comparisons
🔹 Enhancing insight into causal responses from local-to-global scales🌍
✅Generate more informative data for model evaluation 📈,
✅Detect thresholds and potential tipping points of biological and geochemical responses ⚠️,
✅Help guide prioritised interventions for mitigation 🌱.