How can larger creatures be introduced into the mesocosms and another level of the food web included in the experiments? How can it be ensured that organisms that develop slower than plankton, are exposed to ocean acidification from the very start of their lives?
Fisheries biologists from the BIOACID project built so-called “incubators”, put plastic plates with fish eggs inside and hung them into the mesocosms. Then they had to wait. After about two weeks, the egg plates were empty. The scientists now knew that tiny herring larvae were swarming in their experimental worlds. The “pickled herring” could not be caught until the entire community was taken out with an extra large net for further analyses at the end of the study.
Photo: Solvin Zankl