3 Montpellier/Sète-MEDIMEER, CNRS - FRANCE

Description of the infrastructure /

Transnational Access in 2012

Description of the infrastructure MEDIMEER offers fully operating experimental facility for controlled in situ experiments (mesocosms) that allow the description and quantification of the effects of environmental factors on aquatic organisms. The fixed in situ mesocosms consists of a permanent floating adjustable pontoon harbours up to 12 in situ pelagic mesocosms (maximum diameter 1.2 m, maximum depth 3 m) and 2 pelago-benthic mesocosms (maximum 5 m long and 1 m deep). MEDIMEER is located at Sète on Thau Lagoon (Mediterranean Sea coastline) on the South-East of France and was established by the research unit «Ecosystèmes Lagunaires” in 2003. It is the only permanent platform for in situ mesocosm experiments in Southern Europe. MEDIMEER is lacated at the Marine Station of Sète (Station Méditerranéenne de l’Environnement Littoral: SMEL), one of the oldest marine station on the Mediterranean coast. This marine station is a common facility of the University of Montpellier 2 (UM2) http://www.univ-montp2.fr. There is a direct access to the pontoon from the shore allowing an easy deployment of experimental material and facilitating working conditions. MEDIMEER is located close to the canal connecting Thau lagoon with the Mediterranean Sea permitting the transport of off shore water by boat if the fixed in situ mesocosms need to be filled with Mediterranean water.

Click on the picture to upload a presentation about the MEDIMEER facility in Montpellier/Sète

MEDIMEER also integrates an observation platform which supports continuous high frequency observations of environmental parameters especially climate variables (temperature and solar irradiance) contributing to evaluate how global change affect Mediterranean ecosystems. MEDIMEER also integrates an observation platform which supports continuous high frequency observations of environmental parameters especially climate variables (temperature and solar irradiance) contributing to evaluate how global change affect Mediterranean ecosystems.
The Marine Station of Sète also hosts MEDIMEER’s laboratories dedicated to the analysis of samples coming from mesocosm experiments or from the lagoon ecosystem monitoring. A radioisotope lab is currently under construction and the process of its certification is underway. Access to this additional facility will be possible at the beginning of 2011, all other facilities being currently accessible.

In addition to MEDIMEER facilities, the Marine Station of Sète can also provide services such as: dormitories, boat, aquaculture tanks, cold room, and animal collection by a diver. On the UM2 campus in Montpellier, 30 km away from Sète, services of electron microscopy, infra-red and Raman spectroscopy and mass spectrometry are also available (costs not included in MESOAQUA).
Since the establishment of MEDIMEER, several research themes, ranging from bacteria to fish, were developed through five nationally funded projects and realized on MEDIMEER.
 

Services currently offered by the infrastructure:
The first service offered to users under MESOAQUA consist of the access to the adjustable floating pontoon which can accommodate up to 12 immersed mesocosms (pelagic units, up to 2000 L). Each mesocosm is supported by a stainless-steel floating structure and is equipped with temperature probes for continuous water temperature measurement and also with a pump that ensures the mixing of the water column. In addition to the pelagic mesocosms, MEDIMEER offers facilities for pelago-benthic mesocosms (up to 50 000 L) in order to set up experimentations investigating the interface between pelagic and benthic environments including macro-organisms (e.g. oysters, fishes).
A set of automatic sensors located at the MEDIMEER’s site supports continuous high frequency observations of environmental parameters including weather data, climate variables (temperature and solar irradiance) to monitor environmental conditions before and during the experiments.
 

Transnational Access in 2012
 

Mesocosm experiment D: 14 MAy-22 June 2012   see CALENDAR 2012

WARMACIDWEB - A Mesocosm experiment on the combining effect of WARMing and ACIDification on plankton food WEB structure and functionning

 

PI:  F. Vidussi (Francesca.vidussi@univ-montp2.fr), ECOSYM, CNRS-Université Montpellier II, FR

 

The application deadline for MESOAQUA Transnational Access was 30 September 2011, 12:00 CET. The applications are currently in review process by the independent SAB.

Contact of facility providers:

Modality of access under MESOAQUA:
Up to 3 month in the year 2011 can be allocated to external users either for a full month period if necessary or in the form of several short-term experiments. Depending on scientific objectives, a mesocosm experiment using MEDIMEER facilities typically involves 10 to 15 persons for 3-4 weeks.

Support offered under MESOAQUA:
The MESOAQUA project will support the user/users travel and subsistence expenses during the experiments. All TA-user groups will be offered full technical, logistic and scientific support enabling typical mesocosm experiments. This access and technical support include:

• Access to the fixed in situ mesocosms and the associated material for experimentations as described before.
• Full access to laboratory (25 m²), workshop (20 m²) and office (15 m²) spaces in the nearby buildings of Marine Station of Sète (Station Méditerranéenne de l’Environnement Littoral). Lab facilities include fridges, freezers (-20°C and -80°C), liquid N, bench-top hood system, distilled water and ultra-pure water.
• Technical and logistical support and supervision for the use of the experimental facilities and materials
• Access to weather station data (temperature and solar irradiance in Séte)
• Scientific interaction with leading scientists in mesocosm and Microbial Food Web research.

Furthermore, in order to encourage active cooperation with the local scientists, user/user groups that cooperate with Partner 3 scientists on collaborative projects will also benefit from active scientific interaction with leading researchers in mesocosm and microbial food web research and get access to extensive lab instruments and facilities such as LS 45 PerkinElmer spectrofluorimeter, a U310 Hitachi spectro in mesocosm and Microbial Food Web research including photometer (with integrating sphera), a FiRE Satlantic fluorimeter (variable fluorescence), a CRISON oxygen titrator and benchtop materials (peristaltic pumps, vacuum pumps, filtration sets, bacteriologic type incubator, inverted microscope, liquid nitrogen container, compressor coolers for transport, balances, etc.) These facilities have not been included in the access, but will be made available to the users as a courtesy of the hosting institution to promote active scientific exchange and advancement.

Learn more about this facility.