2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

6/06/2017 | 12:00 PM - 12:15 PM | Mesocosm studies bring order to cryptic ecological responses to contaminants. | 305B

Mesocosm studies bring order to cryptic ecological responses to contaminants.

Ecological responses to anthropogenic stress are cryptic by nature making it difficult to make causal inferences. This is due to the fact that ecosystems are dynamic environments and no single factor can be definitively linked to a specific ecological response. Multiple lines of evidence are a common technique used to decipher ecological responses to contaminants to infer cause and effect associations. Mesocosm experiments are an underappreciated cipher of field data. Here we present a series of case studies demonstrating key scientific attributes of mesocosm experiments. Mesocosm results are reproducible, can provide direct evidence of dose-response relations, and in some cases, identify complex ecological responses such as trophic cascades and effects on multiple life stages. Ecologically relevant exposure scenarios developed in mesocosm studies can be extrapolated to natural ecosystems. Paired field and mesocosm studies provide complementary lines of evidence that act like a lens by which ecosystem complexity is simplified, and provide insight into how to manage problems associated with contamination of freshwater ecosystems.

S25 Do mesocosm experiments play a meaningful role in freshwater research
C13 Ecotoxicology
S03 Stressing the 'Eco' in Freshwater Ecotoxicology

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Presenters/Authors

Travis S. Schmidt (), U.S. Geological Survey, Helena, MT 59601, tschmidt@usgs.gov;