AQUACOSM-CELLDEX COLLABORATION - Invitation

Jay Piggott (and Scott Tiegs):

"Dear Colleagues,

As an AQUACOSM facility operator, I am seeking your support and participation in a distributed experiment across the AQUACOSM mesocosm network to include a cotton-strip decay assay as a standardised measure of ecosystem function in planned/future experiments (papers attached). This proposed study (aka. AQUACOSM-CELLDEX) compliments the past efforts of the CELLDEX (CELLulose Decomposution EXperiment) project led by project partner Scott Tiegs (Oakland University, USA) that engaged >132 crowd-sourced researchers to characterise cellulose decomposition using cotton-strips in >500 streams across 40 countries (info attached). The assay is simple to use, requiring less than 5 minutes to introduce into and remove from each mesocosm.

The objective of AQUACOSM-CELLDEX is to use a standardized assay to quantify stressor impacts on different types of aquatic ecosystems – across multiple locations, latitudes and biomes (pond, stream and marine). In particular, we are interested in partnering on experiments manipulating environmental stressors including nutrients, temperature, pH and other climate stressors (e.g. browning)."

More information here