I am currently working on evaluating the effects of climate change on marine plankton using a mesocosm facility. I have some queries
The capacity of my tank is 2000 L - Indoor facility
1. Do I need a wave maker for recirculation in the tank or is it enough if I use a high capacity blower (e.g. 80 HP).
2. What kind of instruments should I used for CO2 diffuser?
3. I am planning to run one set of experiment for 20 days, the total capacity of seawater will be 2000 L, Do I need a separate recirculating system?
4. I will be drawing around 10 L for various analysis on alternate days for a period of 20 days.. how much will this effect the total volume ? I don't think refilling is a good idea, kindly suggest me some alternative.
5. What are the general problems that we could face while using a mesocosm facility?
Thank you
Regards
Vinitha
Hello, Vinitha! How do you plan to fix (observe, detect) the influence of global warming (climate change) on phytoplankton?
Hello Vinitha,
If i may suggest some literature that you will find very useful and will answer some of your questions:
The Guide to Best Practice in Ocean Acidification Research:
https://www.iaea.org/ocean-acidification/download/7_Best%20practices/OA_guide_20110726.pdf
A methods review from Dr. Cornwall et al.,
http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/07/07/icesjms.fsv118.short
1) You do not really need a wave maker, but a recirculation pump, unless of course wave motion is a parameter that you want to add to your experiment;
2) For CO2 diffusion it is advised to use an atomizer, but strongly depends on what kind of tank (e.g. if your tank is closed or open) and on your CO2 injection systems. Also in your case with a 2000L tank you will need A LOT of CO2 to maintain high CO2 to simulate future oceans conditions, that will be hard (but not impossible) and costly to accomplish;
4) if you have a closed system, you have to consider refilling... using UV filtered seawater, or a synthetic one that you can DIY
5) there are many problems that you face, and these are similar to the ones that aquarist and aquaculture professionals experience, so you will find a lot about proper methods of cultivating planktonic communities. For example, water changes, proper nutrients concentration, oxygen depletion, in your case also CO2 diffusion, temperature maintenance, proliferation of unwanted organisms... etc etc...
personal advices:
I just wonder why you need so much volume, since you need to replicate your experiment, there are simpler (and easier treated) tanks that are designed for planktonic communities, for example a very very simple one that you can build yourself: http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-07/ds/images/image002.jpg
Hope it helped you a bit, this is as far as i can go with the information you gave,
Regards,
Fabio
Thanks a lot Favoretto, i have not finalized the volume yet , I just wanted to know all the drawbacks, before I start working on it.. Thanks again
Finally, nobody sure that we can create natural conditions in mesocosm. What way you want to observe the climate change influence?
Thank you Dr. Byron... for your suggestions.. ur right.. I am working with smaller capacities now... with natural pytoplankton communities ... but there are species dominance when a particular parameter is changed. I will take up all your suggestions before setting up a mesocosm
Goncharov... I am planning to vary temperature, CO2 levels, nutrients, salinity etc.,
Thanks Drs. All
Ebenezer... it's suddenly cool ))) but looks like speculation
U r right... Speculation it is... but no harm devising experimental plans and trying to working it out right
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