Microcosms validation
Development and validation of a marine experimental life support system for accessing synergistic effects of climate change and oil pollution on microbial communities
A state of the art marine experimental life support system framework was developed to perform microcosms experiments of climate change and anthropogenic pollutants effects on marine microbial communities. The system can be build with commercially available materials, enabling the reproduction of the same experiment in several locations worldwide. Here the system was validated for microbial ecology studies by comparing the bacterial composition of environmental and microcosm samples with a RNA-based barcode pyrosequencing approach. The OTU composition shift towards anaerobic bacterial groups in manipulates samples, witch can be explained with the operational programme executed. Replicate microcosm maintained a high OTU composition stability, with similar variability to the environmental samples.  This system can be use to establish cause-effect relationships into the effects of climate change and other anthropogenic stressors on specific marine microbial communities. Moreover, the marine experimental life support system versatile design enables its use on ecotoxicology tests.