EURO-BASIN
WP2 Mesocosm 2012:
Status Report
Basic Info
• Goal: To explore how different phytoplankton populations and the
presence or absence of macrozooplankton affect primary production,
remineralization, aggregation, sinking fluxes, and the flow of material
through the food web
• Experiment: A 3.5 week experiment with 18 mesocosms (+6 for a
side experiment)
• Facility: NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
Sletvik field station, Bay of Hopavågen (a HYDRALAB IV facility)
• Access: 15-17 people, 36 days (mid July to late Aug 2012)
– more people possible if funds for travel & accommodation are paid
Sletvik field station, Bay of Hopavågen
• Hopavågen is a semi-enclosed lagoon, 120 km west
of Trondheim and 20 km west of the outlet of the
Trondheimsfjord.
• It is sheltered from wind and waves, has an area of
27 ha, a volume of 5,5 million m3, and a depth that
varies between 22 m and 32 m.
• Due to tidal forcing, about 14% of its water is
exchanged per day, through a narrow inlet.
Sletvik Field Station,
Hopavågen
Trondheim
Bergen
Sletvik field station, Bay of Hopavågen
Sletvik field station, Bay of Hopavågen
• The Sletvik field station is located 300 m from the
lagoon and has a laboratory space of 250 m2, kitchen
facilities, nearby catering possibilities, and
dormitories for 50 people.
• It has also a pier and a small laboratory at the shore
of Hopavågen.
• Hopavågen is ideal for testing instrumentation as
well as testing and validating ecological models.
Sletvik field station, Bay of Hopavågen
they are no stranger to mesocosm experiments
Sletvik field station, Bay of Hopavågen
Access is funded through the HYDRALAB IV
European transnational facilities project
(i.e., they provide the travel costs, room &
board, and access to the field site for 15-17
people)
BASIN (WP2 funds to CDLR) pays for core
measurements, sampling equipment, &
consumables related to core measurements
Side experiments supported through external
funding (e.g., NERC, CNRS)
Participants
1. C. De La Rocha (IUEM)
11. M. Koski (DTU)
2. H. Stibor (Munich)
12. R. Lampitt (NOC)
3. B. Moriceau (IUEM)
13. S. Giering (NOC)
4. P. Pondaven (IUEM)
14. M. Le Goff (IUEM)
5. M. Gallinari (IUEM)
15. R. Bellerby (Norway) ?
6. T. Jansen (Kiel)
16. P. Assmy (Norway) ?
7. J. Butorh (IUEM)
17. M. Iversen (Bremen) ?
8. N. Coffineau (IUEM)
9. V. de Schryver (Munich)
10. A. Leynaert (IUEM)
Local participants: Olav Vadstein, Yngvar Olsen, Øystein Leiknes
Provisional Timeline
•
•
•
•
Day 1-7 Setup (small group); others trickle in
Day 8-20 Begin; add Si, N, P daily
Day 21-30 No addition of nutrients
Day 31-36 Finish experiment, wrap up onsite
analyses, pack up, leave
Matrix of Mesocosms
unfiltered SW
macrozoops removed
unfiltered SW
copepods added back
diatoms
dinos
coccos
mineral addition
Vertical Sampling Plan
0m
3m
10 m
6m
9m
Temporal Sampling Plan
• 7-11 sampling dates within the ~22 days of the
experiment (i.e., every 2nd or every 3rd day)
• This would yield 500-800 water column samples for
each core measurement… and 3x that if done in
triplicate
– strategies to reduce this number for labor intensive or
expensive measurements need to be discussed
Core Measurements
Nutrients: DSi, NO3-, NO2-, NH4+, PO4
(LeGoff)
bacteria counts (Gallinari)
PIC, BSi (Moriceau, Butorh)
oxygen production (to yield GPP and NPP)
(?)
PAM (light use efficiency, chlorophyll,
etc) (Stibor, deSchryver)
respiration rates (?)
POC, PON, POP (LeGoff)
grazing rates (Pondaven, Coffineau,
others?)
size fractionated POC, PON, POP
(Gallinari, DLR)
primary production (via gross growth rate)
(Pondaven, Coffineau, Leynaert, others?)
zoop POC, PON, POP (Pondaven,
Coffineau)
species specific growth rates (phyto, zoop)
(Pondaven, Coffineau, Leynaert, others?)
DOC, DON, DOP (Gallinari, CDLR)
CTD (LeGoff)
pigments (Stibor, deSchryver)
Sediment :
TEP, CSP (Moriceau, Butorh)
POC, PON, POP (Gallinari, DLR)
phyto counts (Gallinari)
PIC, BSi (Moriceau, Butorh)
zoop counts (Pondaven, Coffineau,
others?)
TEP, CSP (Moriceau, Butorh)
Additional Measurements
composition of POM (Moriceau,
Butorh)
compound specific sulfur isotopes
(Jansen)
lipids for tracking flow of materials
(Jansen)
flow cytometry (cell viability, etc)
(Moriceau, Gallinari, Butorh)
silicon isotopes of DSi; BSi in diatom
mesocosms (CDLR, Gallinari)
Proposed Side Experiments
grazing induced changes in
silicification
Pondaven, Coffineau, Moriceau,
Gallinari, Butorh, CDLR
jellyfish (if present)
Stibor & Jansen
mixotrophy
deSchryver
impact of calcium carbonate on
Lampitt & Giering (& Bellerby?)
food web; impact of food web on
calcium carbonate
dissolution/CO2 sequestration
aggregation under the different
conditions
Iversen (?)
feeding of zooplankton on
aggregates
Koski & Iversen (?)
Tasks for the Next Few Months
• receive exact dates for experiment
• finalize participant, measurement, and side
experiment lists
• finalize sampling plan
• submit data management plan to HYDRALAB
• begin purchasing consumables and sampling
equipment