Soil disturbance has been widely recognized as an important factor influencing the structure and dynamics of plant communities. Although soil reworkers were shown to increase habitat complexity and raise the risk of plant invasion, their role in regulating the interactions between native and invasive species remains unclear. We proposed that crab activities, via improving soil nitrogen availabi...

The freshwater chlorophyte Scenedesmus obliquus (Turpin) Kützing produces colonies as an inducible defence against herbivores. We investigated the dynamics of Scenedesmus colony formation and disintegration in response to the density of the herbivorous rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus in large-scale mesocosms. Additional bioassays were performed to investigate Scenedesmus colony disintegration u...

We report the results from a mesocosm study investigating the interrelationship between microalgae and vibrios. The mesocosms were inoculated with plankton, plankton + sediment, or sediment. We followed the diatom bloom and increases in the abundance of Vibrio spp. and V. parahaemolyticus in conjunction with several environmental variables in all mesocosms and at a reference site. The dominatin...

We describe a completely randomizable flow-through outdoor mesocosm for climate change and ecotoxicology studies that was built with inexpensive materials. The 16 raceway tanks allow up to 6× water renewal per hour, avoiding changes in natural abiotic seawater conditions. We use an open-source hardware board (Arduino) that was adapted to control heaters and an innovative CO 2 injection system. ...

This study used an experimental model to evaluate methylmercury accumulation when the soil of a constructed wetland is amended with sulfate. The model was planted with Schoenoplectus californicus and designed to reduce wastestream metals and metal-related toxicity. The soil was varied during construction to provide a control and two sulfate treatments which were equally efficient at overall mer...

1Environmental Science and Engineering Program, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, British Columbia V2N 4Z9 2Department of Civil Engineering, University of British Columbia, 6250 Applied Science Lane, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4 3Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of British Columbia, 2360 East Mall, Vancouver, British...

Microbial communities are in close contact with the wetland soil microenvironment and can therefore function effectively as monitors of soil pollution. The objective of this studywas to determine changes in the functional responses of microbial communities as a result of an external input of nutrients, while controlling for vegetation. A controlled experiment was performed at the mesocosm scale...