Enclosures of various sizes and configurations have been employed to maintain natural planktonic communities and to examine their responses to pollutants (e.g. Menzel & Steele, 1978; Steele, 1979). Studies on feeding, growth, and mortality of larval fishes, at times conducted in conjunction with pollution experiments, have also been successfully conducted in large enclosures (Koeller & Parsons, 1977). Implicit in these and other comparable studies has been the expectation (or hope) that a balance could be achieved between the advantages and difficulties inherent in more traditional field and laboratory studies. Field studies offer the realism of working with the natural assemblage with its many interacting components and links, but also suffer the disadvantage associated with a turbulent and advective system, which generally makes the repetitive sampling of the same populations impossible. Laboratory studies reverse the balance; control and definition of the components are gained at the expense of realism. The use of large containers represents a hybrid approach characterized by a partial control over a moderately realistic ecosystem. In the ideal case, the use of large containers allows sufficient control to permit experimental manipulation of (and the testing of hypotheses concerning) planktonic assemblages which are sufficiently realistic to permit extension of the experimental results to the ‘real world’.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.