Mesocosm? What’s a Mesocosm? New Facility Under Construction at DISL.
Dr. George F. Crozier

The new Richard Shelby Center for Ecosystem-Based Management is more than just the new building going in at the entrance to the Sea Lab. The Center also contains an exciting unique facility for the central Gulf - a system of mesocosms. These are simply large experimental ponds or tanks that will allow some manipulation of the constituents and support experimental work at levels more closely approaching an ecosystem.

The mesocosms will be located on the south campus of the DISL and can accommodate a suite of large and small plant and animal taxa, including those that form habitats (e.g., seagrasses, marsh plants, oysters and hardbottom species).  This allows investigators to study of the majority of strong interactors in these habitats, along with the fishery species of interest (e.g., juvenile red snapper), and permit a wide range of experiments to be carried out.

The facility will consist of an elevated tank farm of a dozen or more tanks supplied by a saltwater intake built in conjunction with the Auburn University Marine and Extension Shellfish Laboratory at DISL. The large number of tanks allows for adequate replication of experimental treatments. Redundancies in the system will allow energy efficiencies as well as provide the ability to assist each other as necessary. Plant Operations at DISL is building the facility with its own personnel from top to bottom. The elevated platform provides ready plumbing access for the eventual configuration.