A joint mesocosm experiment will take place in February/March 2013 in the bay of Villefranche, near the Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche (LOV; http://www.obs-vlfr.fr/LOV/). Nine mesocosms (52 m3) will be deployed over a 30 days period and 6 different levels of pCO2 and 3 control mesocosms (~ 400 μatm), will be used, in order to cover the range of pCO2 anticipated for the end of the present century. During this experiment, the potential effects of these perturbations on chemistry, planktonic community composition and dynamics including: eucaryotic and prokaryotic species composition, primary production, nutrient and carbon utilization, calcification, diazotrophic nitrogen fixation, organic matter exudation and composition, micro-layer composition and biogas production will be studied by a group of 20-25 scientists from 8 institutes and 6 countries.
This is the second mesocosm experiment that will be conducted in the Mediterranean Sea in the framework of the MedSeA project. While the first experiment, conducted in June/July 2012 in Corsica, was dedicated to the assessment of ocean acidification effects during the summer oligotrophic period, this second experiment will take place during the winter-spring phytoplanktonic bloom. A blog dedicated to this experiment can be viewed at: http://medseavillefranche2013.wordpress.com