Data from: Addressing grand ecological challenges in aquatic ecosystems: How can mesocosms be used to advance solutions?
Data files
Jan 08, 2025 version files 21.52 KB
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README.md
2.82 KB
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Survey_responses_collated_data.xlsx
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Abstract
Rapid and drastic anthropogenic impacts are affecting global biogeochemical processes and driving biodiversity loss across Earth’s ecosystems. In aquatic ecosystems, species distributions are shifting, abundances of many species have declined dramatically, and many are threatened with extinction. In addition to loss of diversity, the ecosystem functions, processes and services on which humans depend are also being heavily impacted. Addressing these challenges not only requires direct action to mitigate environmental impacts but also innovative approaches to identify, quantify and treat their effects in the environment. Mesocosms are valuable tools for achieving these goals as they provide controlled environments for evaluating effects of stressors and testing novel mitigation measures at multiple levels of biological organisation. Here, we summarise discussions from a survey of marine and freshwater researchers who use mesocosm systems to synthesise their opportunities and limitations for advancing solutions to grand ecological challenges in aquatic ecosystems. While most research utilising mesocosm systems in aquatic ecology has focused on quantifying the effects of environmental threats, there is a largely unexplored potential for using them to test solutions. To overcome spatio-temporal constraints, there are opportunities to scale up the size and time-scales of mesocosm studies, or alternatively, test the outcomes of habitat-scale restoration at a smaller scale. Enhancing connectivity in future studies can help to overcome the limitation of isolation and test an important aspect of ecological recovery. Conducting ‘metacosm’ studies: co-ordinated, distributed mesocosm experiments spanning wide climatic and environmental gradients and utilising more regression-based experimental designs can help to tackle the challenge of context dependent results. Finally, collaboration of theoretical, experimental and applied ecologists and biogeochemists with environmental engineers and technological developers will be necessary to develop and test the tools required to advance solutions to the impacts of human activities on Earth’s vulnerable aquatic ecosystems.
README: Addressing grand ecological challenges in aquatic ecosystems: How can mesocosms be used to advance solutions?
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.jm63xsjn0
Description of the data and file structure
Files and variables
File: Survey_responses_collated_data.xlsx
Description: Response data collated for the survey; “Mesocosms as a tool to address grand challenges: current research and future opportunities in aquatic ecology”
Variables
- Applied research category (either Environmental threat or Solution).
- Environmental threat or solution topic (i.e. "grand challenge")
- Aquatic system (Still freshwater, Running freshwater, or* Marine*).
- Responses (number of responses)
- Skipped (number of respondents who skipped this answer (but provided demographic information, etc.))
- 1. No research in this area (percentage of respondents who selected this weighting to indicate how much research has been done in each topic ("grand challenge") using their mesocosm system)
- 2. A little research in this area (percentage of respondents who selected this weighting to indicate how much research has been done in each topic ("grand challenge") using their mesocosm system)
- 3. A lot of research in this area (percentage of respondents who selected this weighting to indicate how much research has been done in each topic ("grand challenge") using their mesocosm system)
- 4. Most research in this system is in this area (percentage of respondents who selected this weighting to indicate how much research has been done in each topic ("grand challenge") using their mesocosm system)
- 1. No potential (percentage of respondents who selected this weighting to indicate the potential for their mesocosm system to address each research topic/grand challenge)
- 2. Some, but limited potential (percentage of respondents who selected this weighting to indicate the potential for their mesocosm system to address each research topic/grand challenge)
- 3. Medium potential (percentage of respondents who selected this weighting to indicate the potential for their mesocosm system to address each research topic/grand challenge)
- 4. Good potential (percentage of respondents who selected this weighting to indicate the potential for their mesocosm system to address each research topic/grand challenge)
- 5. Very strong potential (percentage of respondents who selected this weighting to indicate the potential for their mesocosm system to address each research topic/grand challenge)
"NA" indicate no responses because this category was missing from this question in the survey. "-" indicates responses are not relevant for this category in this system, as determined by co-authors (not that there is a reponse of zero percent).
Methods
A survey titled “Mesocosms as a tool to address grand challenges: current research and future opportunities in aquatic ecology” was designed using the SurveyMonkey online survey-building platform and was tested and adapted based on test feedback prior to distribution. Distribution of the survey was primarily achieved via email and social media platforms. The survey link was also advertised on the aquacosm.eu home webpage. The survey was open for responses for five months from April 28th to September 31st, 2022. Survey participants were informed of the purpose of the study, the method for gathering data, the use(s) of gathered data and the process of data storage. All contributors consented to participating in the survey according to these ethical guidelines and the use of gathered data in publication. Participant data was stored in compliance with GDPR.
A diverse group of researchers across different aquatic ecosystems was targeted, including both freshwater and marine environments to foster cross-system perspectives. While responses were welcomed from researchers regardless of their prior use of mesocosms, the majority of respondents were, understandably (given the survey topic), those with direct experience using mesocosm systems in their work. The potential sampling and response bias in our approach is acknowledged, as respondents were likely to be proponents of mesocosm research, particularly if they were active users of mesocosms. This is an inherent limitation of our approach, however, advantages of the survey approach were that it enabled gathering information not yet available in the published literature and informed insights and perspectives from experts with extensive hands-on knowledge, who are best positioned to identify the practical applications and limitations of these systems.
There were two central questions in the survey used to gather information about the utility of aquatic mesocosm systems for addressing grand ecological challenges and to understand perspectives of how they could be used in future solution-focused research:
1. Which grand ecological challenges has your aquatic ecology research already addressed (with the mesocosm system you have used most)?
o Please select a weight from 1 (none) to 4 (mostly in this area) indicating how much research has been done in each area below.
o Note that some of these may be sub-categories of each other (in which case you can tick research in both) and there is also an opportunity to suggest additional challenges in each category (environmental threats and solution-focused research topics).
2. Which grand challenges do you think your system could be used to address in the future?
o Please select a weight from 1 (no potential) to 5 (very strong potential) indicating the potential for this system to address the grand challenges listed. For those that you rank good or very strong potential (4-5), please provide a brief indication with relevant details why in the comment box at the bottom of the page.
o Note there is also an opportunity to provide additional challenges in each category.