Mary’s Mesocosms

Mary’s Mesocosms

A mesocosm is a world within a world. A container placed in the environment with controlled exchange pathways, a mesocosm allows a researcher to control certain variables while permitting overall environmental processes to continue as is natural. At Timberlake, three ponds have been outfitted with mesocosms to study the effects of shading and food web structure on the community structure of algae over time. This is the thesis research of Mary Mullins, a graduate student in the Department of Biological Sciences under the supervision of Dr. Victoria Chraïbi. Mary will repeat the experiment multiple times to study seasonal variation in the ecological interactions. If you visit Timberlake in the next year and see orange buckets in the water, you’re observing science in action!