Development of the Minnesota Terrestrial Integrated Mesocosms for Biophysical and Ecophysiological Research

University Of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Minneapolis MN

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports the development of a world-class research and education mesocosm facility that will provide unique opportunities to: 1) conduct detailed process and simulation studies to complement ongoing field experiments; 2) improve the design of future field experiments and models; 3) examine future management and climate change scenarios; 4) educate students by integrating this facility into courses offered in at least three colleges at the University, and 5) provide a highly visible and easily accessible forum for public engagement in science education. This facility will make it possible to pursue long-term multidisciplinary studies. Two important Research and Education Themes that this unique facility will help address include: 1) Impacts of Multiple Climate Change Stressors (CO2, O3, temperature) on Northern Perennial Natural and Managed Ecosystems and 2) Effects of Seasonal Saturation and Freeze-Thaw Cycles on Natural and Managed Northern Ecosystems. The mesocosms will be developed using 12 large rhizotrons including large above ground canopies with a climate and environmental control system to examine processes ranging from those in a model ecosystem to those at a molecular scale, including above ground and subsurface processes. The mesocosm facility will be used to bridge the gap between theoretical, laboratory, field, and model-based investigations at a range of scales. A sophisticated climate control system will allow a large, interdisciplinary, collaborative research team to examine the effects of temperature, water table, carbon dioxide (CO2) and ground level ozone (O3) variations on biophysical and ecophysiological processes. In particular, the mesocosms will be uniquely designed to study cold temperature processes, which remain poorly understood and understudied. The simulation of mid-continent winter will be achieved using conditioned (filtered, modified) outside air and soil freezing. In addition, fluctuating water tables, which strongly influence the chemistry, physics, and biology of northern ecosystems, will be studied. The instrumentation will also facilitate process investigations including microbial population dynamics and root demography, soil chemistry, greenhouse gas exchange, soil water, heat, and chemical transport, physiological responses of whole plants, symbiotic associations, ecosystem dynamics and land-atmosphere energy and mass exchange. Continuous flux measurements of CO2, O3, N2O, NH3, and CH4 at each mesocosm will allow for detailed environmental control studies.