Mesocosms for Oil Spill Simulation
Enclosed experimental ecosystems (mesocosms) are important research tools for the evaluation of the fate and effects of xenobiotic chemicals (as crude oil) of parts (individuals, populations, communities) and of whole (ecosystems) simultaneously.
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N. Timmis (ed.), Handbook of Hydrocarbon and Lipid Microbiology, DOI 10.1007/978-3-540-77587-4_274, # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2010
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Mesocosms for Oil Spill Simulation
Abstract: Enclosed experimental ecosystems (mesocosms) are important research tools for the evaluation of the fate and effects of xenobiotic chemicals (as crude oil) of parts (individuals, populations, communities) and of whole (ecosystems) simultaneously. Mesocosm experiments have played an important role over the last decade in increasing our understanding of marine ecosystems. This section provides suggestions for future applications of mesocosm researches with particular interest at application of these ‘‘living machines’’ for study of coastal and pelagic marine environments polluted from hydrocarbons. Attention should be given to the configuration of mesocosm parameters to explicitly study regional questions of ecological interest. The initial physical, chemical, and biological conditions within mesocosms should be considered as factors shaping the final results of experiments. The use of mesocosms refines the classical methods of biological risk assessment because mesocosms provide conditions for a better understanding of environmentally relevant impacts of chemicals without a direct in situ threat. Mesocosms are special ‘‘windows’’ along the spatial scale of ecosystems for examining ecological questions related to the secure. Their originality is mainly based on the combination of ecological realism, achieved by the introduction of the basic components of natural ecosystems, and that ease the access to a number of physicochemical, biological, and toxicological variables instead of parameters that can be controlled to some extent.
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Introduction
Since the early days of microbiology and oceanography, in situ and in vitro (laboratory) experiments have been carried out to gain an understanding of ecological processes (Reilly, 1999). Mesocosm manipulation experiments were successfully employed in recent studies examining the effects of the dynamics of microbial populations in the marine environment (Cappello et al., 2007; Lebaron et al., 2001; Pukall et al., 1999; Schafer et al., 2001; Takeuchi et al., 2000), the analysis of diatom blooms (Alldredge et al., 1995; Engel et al., 2002), the effects of ultraviolet radiation (Santas et al., 1998), the impact of pollutants in the ecosystem (Delille et al, 1998; Santas et al., 1999), the changes in sea surface temperature (Sommer et al., 2007), mixed layer depth (Berger et al., 2006), and seawater pH/CO2 (Kim et al., 2006) on pelagic systems. The terms microcosms and mesocosms are often used to define the ecosystems studied in such experiments and the prefix micro-, meso-, or macro- may be used to define the size of such an experimental unit. As an arbitrary limit, Bloesch (1988) suggest to define microcosms to contain 1,000 m3. Mesocosms are middle-sized, enclosed, and constructed experimental ecosystems that are widely used as tools for ecological research, applied research and d
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