ANNOUNCING THE FALL 2025

Limnology and Oceanography
SPECIAL ISSUE

Mesocosms: Bridging the Gap
Between In Situ and
Laboratory Studies

Steeve Comeau, Elisa Schaum, and Julia Mullarney

In a rapidly changing world, it is crucial that we examine the responses of aquatic organisms across the scales of individuals, communities, and trophic levels, on time scales relevant for responses to environmental change. Laboratory studies allow us to develop mechanistic understandings on individual organisms or groups thereof but are often limited in their ecological realism. In situ observations yield important information on environments in their current state but cannot be easily manipulated or investigated through experiments. Mesocosms

can close the gap by permitting the isolation of
communities of interest ex situ or in situ to
study the response of these communities
to environmental, biological, chemical, or
ecological drivers. In the last decade, ren-
ewed interest in small-scale mesocosm,
large-scale mesocosm, or in situ mesocosm
(enclosure) experiments (Fig. 1) have pro-
vided new insights into complex mechanisms
such as ecological cascading effects and spe-
cies interactions. Recently, mesocosms have
proved a vital tool to study the response of
aquatic communities to climate change and
acidification, from coral reefs to lakes and
polar ecosystems, and to address how results
from individual laboratory experiments on
single organisms can translate to the commu-
nity scale. These tools will also be critical to
assess the role that aquatic systems can play
for the storage of carbon and the buffering of
climate change.

In this Special Issue of *Limnology and Oceanography (L&O)*, we welcome the submission of studies from all fields of oceanography and limnology, from ecology to biology, which rely on the use of mesocosms to go beyond experiments on single organisms to make significant advancement in the understanding

of key aquatic processes. Contributions may
include studies at global to local scales with
broad implications across the aquatic sciences
and beyond. A Virtual Issue of previously publi-
shed papers relevant to the topic along with
those of this Special Issue will be bound and
added to the journal website collections page
(https://aslopubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/topic/
vi-categories-19395590/ac5e9f18-3c05-455f-
be97-0c888618e6bc/19395590).

All contributions to this special issue must fit within the scope of L&O and will be assessed with the same level of rigor as regular journal contributions. Accepted papers will be published in *Early View* (online version of record before inclusion in an issue), with a permanent and citable DOI upon acceptance. The complete Special Issue will be bound for Fall 2025. For more information, manuscript proposal, or inquiries on the suitability of your work, please contact one of the Deputy Editors: Steeve Comeau, steeve.comeau@imev-mer.fr; Elisa Schaum, elisa.schaum@uni-hamburg.de; and Julia Mullarney, julia.mullarney@waikato.ac.nz.

Guest Editors:

Christopher Cornwall, Victoria University of
Wellington

Christian Pansch-Hattich, Åbo Akademi
University

Maren Striebel, Universität Oldenburg

Jens Nejstgaard, Leibniz Institute of Fresh-
water Ecology and Inland Fisheries

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /><figcaption>FIG. 1. Examples of mesocosms used during aquatic studies.</figcaption></figure>

Steeve Comeau, Sorbonne Université, CNRS-INSU,
Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche, Ville-
franche-sur-mer, France; steeve.comeau@imev-
mer.fr

Elisa Schaum, Institute of Marine Ecosystem and Fishery Science (IMF), Centre for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN), Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany; elisa.schaum@uni-hamburg.de

Julia Mullarney, Coastal Marine Group, Te Aka Mātuatua—School of Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand; julia.mullarney@waikato.ac.nz

<footnote>[Correction added on February 07, 2024, after first online publication: Included guest Editor Jens Nejstgaard]</footnote>