AQUACOSM-plus: an International Network for Aquatic Mesocosm Facilities Supporting Experimental Ecosystem Studies and cross-disciplinary RI- RI collaborations

To understand underlying mechanisms of aquatic ecosystem functioning in relating to the global Grand Challenges (climate change, biodiversity loss, eutrophication, emerging pollutants, etc.), it is necessary to consider processes in adjacent systems, such as atmosphere and adjacent aquatic and terrestrial systems. For freshwater and coastal systems, the aquatic-terrestrial coupling on the watershed level is specifically important. We argue that for a better understanding of both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems a combination of long-term data from connected environments, coupled with experimental ecosystem-scale experiments, have a greater potential for successful model testing and development of predictive concepts, than using only long-term data (without experiments) from separate systems. This talk will present the EU-funded RI-project AQUACOSM-plus (www.aquacosm.eu, 2020-2024) that offers access to >60 research facilities across the EU and is linked to world-wide cooperation through the MESOCOSM.EU portal, a virtual network of >100 research facilities. These networks comprise mesocosm facilities in all aquatic systems, including rivers, ponds, lakes, estuaries and marine systems – offering unique opportunities to conduct ecosystem-scale experimental studies of relevance to aquatic-terrestrial coupling. These facilities allow for process studies to test models based on trend or response observations from long-term-data, in order to better understand underlying mechanisms of ecosystem responses to the present global Grand Challenges. The AQUACOSM-plus mesocosm facilities, are also open for conducting ecosystem solution-based experiments to enable effective management in aquatic ecosystems. The AQUACOSM network will open calls to fund access to >13.000 days for a wide range of external users. We will also present examples of developing RI-RI collaborations and development of technological solutions and instrumentation to enhance the mobility of mesocosms and increase opportunities for relevant scenario-testing by the scientific community at large.