Sam Macaulay

Check out this new article on null model selection for multiple stressor research. Fantastic work by Iris Pimentel from @leeselab.bsky.social within the @crc-resist.bsky.social.
Freely available at: dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3...

#BESAG2025: Aquatic Ecology Group Annual Meeting 2025 Get together with the freshwater and marine research community to hear the latest research, share skills, and build your network!

📢✨ Join us for this year #BESAG2025 annual meeting to discuss all things #freshwater and #marine science!

Where: #ZSL, London (UK)
@londonzoo.bsky.social
When: 15th-16th September 2025

Tickets and registration available now:
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/besag2025-...

@britishecologicalsociety.org

10/10 I hope the ideas we share here will help to inspire new, solution-oriented research directions and provoke further thoughtful discussions among those looking to use mesocosm systems in their work!

#ecology #globalchange #mesocosms #solutions #restoration #connectivity #freshwater #marine

9/ Thanks to all those who contributed their thoughts and ideas to this synthesis; @jaypiggott.bsky.social, @csabavad.bsky.social, @spilling.bsky.social, @mstockenreiter.bsky.social, @aquafink.bsky.social, @zsofiahorvath.bsky.social and all those not yet on Bluesky - I enjoyed collating them all!

8/ Finally, integrating the results from controlled mesocosm studies with:
🔹 Large-scale observational datasets 🛰️, and
🔹 Advanced ecosystem models
will generate powerful insignts for management interventions to tackle human-driven impacts on Earth's ecosystems.

7/ Leveraging mesocosms’ high replication potential to employ regression-based designs will:
✅Generate more informative data for model evaluation 📈,
✅Detect thresholds and potential tipping points of biological and geochemical responses ⚠️,
✅Help guide prioritised interventions for mitigation 🌱.

6/ Metacosm studies—coordinated, distributed mesocosm experiments—spanning diverse climates & environmental gradients can tackle context dependency by:
🔹 Standardising methods of data generation
🔹 Improving cross-site comparisons
🔹 Enhancing insight into causal responses from local-to-global scales🌍

5/ Tackling limitations of isolation and temporal divergence? Think about enhancing connectivity by:
✅ 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.

4/ Addressing some solutions will require
🔹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.

A traffic light framework of constraints, limitations and opportunities in aquatic mesocosm research for advancing solutions to environmental threats. Constraints represent broader factors or ecological issues that might limit solution-focused research relative to research quantifying anthropogenic impacts (as indicated by our survey results). Associated with these are more specific limitations of mesocosm systems that might halt or hinder solution-oriented research with mesocosms. Thirdly are the opportunities for overcoming these, which highlight several directions for moving forward in future solution-oriented research utilising mesocosms.

3/ Overcoming spatio-temporal constraints is important, because:
🔹 Restoration is a prolonged process which typically occurs at large spatial scales,
🔹 Connectivity is important in ecological recovery.

Conceptual diagram representing an empirical domain space for ecological research constrained by scales of realism, replication and control. The relative placement of different approaches to empirical research represented by the cubes within the three-dimensional space illustrates the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, with the advantages of micro/mesocosm-based approaches in balancing and extending these three dimensions (scales) illustrated by the positioning of these cubes towards the upper corner nearest the viewpoint. Specific study designs and experimental systems using the approaches pictured will vary considerably and influence the positioning of any one study within this space. The approach taken and experimental design used to address a particular research question will be informed by the ecological and biological variables of interest, factors manipulated, responses measured and desired application of the findings. The positioning of the cubes here is intended to illustrate the general tradeoffs within these key three scales relative to other approaches.

2/Mesocosms have mostly been used to quantify impacts of environmental threats, but there's largely untapped potential in using them to test solutions!

We explore the opportunities that mesocosms offer in providing controlled, realistic and replicable environments for investigating novel solutions.

Addressing grand ecological challenges in aquatic ecosystems: how can mesocosms be used to advance solutions? Rapid and drastic anthropogenic impacts are affecting global biogeochemical processes and driving biodiversity loss across Earth's ecosystems. In aquatic ecosystems, species distributions are shiftin...

How can mesocosms help tackle grand ecological challenges in aquatic ecosystems? 🌊🌍

Check out our open-access Oikos Forum article, out today: 🔗 doi.org/10.1111/oik....

@oikosjournal.bsky.social

Variability of functional and biodiversity responses to perturbations is predictable and informative - Nature Communications Measures of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning show variable responses to perturbations, complicating the prediction of responses to global change. This study shows that the variability of communi...

New paper that may be of interest to ecologists studying global change, disturbances, biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, or response diversity: doi.org/10.1038/s414...

The New Zealand Government’s decision to restructure the Marsden Fund and Catalyst Fund is more than a simple budgetary adjustment – it is a pivotal moment 🧪🧵

Great news, Patrick! Big congratulations 👏🏼

This looks like a very cool mesocosm facility for realistic and controlled experiments studying the roles of dispersal and connectivity in moderating the effects of global change.

Hi, please add me if there’s still space! Thanks :)

Migrated just too late for this list I see! If a 2nd is made, please add me there, thanks!

Yes please, Frank! :)