Everything about the mesocosm

What is a mesocosm:

It is an experimental system which examines the natural environment under controlled conditions. Hereby it encloses an ecosystem, so that it can recycle it's own nutrients and therefore with the help of sun energy keep on going without external influences.

I set up my own mesocosm and that's how I did it:

1. At first I took a container (botle) iwth a lid to close it.

2. I filled the layer on the ground of it with gravel.

3. The second layer added consisted of sand., because that is more easy than gravel.

4. On top of the two stone leayers I filled normal soil, which contains nutrients for the plant.

5. Now I took some pieces of a cut off cactus plant and put it into the soil.

6. As a final step I added water for the plant.

7. Then I closed the bottle and made it sterile by fixing the lid with sallotape. 

One mesocosm which exists can be found in Stechlin in Germany. 

It is a freshwater ecology, which is observed in mesocosmic conditions. Here the researchers look at 24 different lake mesocosms and observe how climate change senarios would influence the water ecology, like the planctonic food webs and biodiversity.

Values, which are measured, include oxygen and PH under temperature change.

http://mesocosm.eu/stechlin