06/09/2012
THE EXPERIMENTAL STREAMS FACILITY RUN
After its launch in May 2012, the Experimental Streams Facility has been successfully running for almost 3 months!
According to the researchers running the facility, stream biofilm composed of a mixture of algae, bacteria and fungi developed properly in the artificial streams during the so called colonization period. After this time, the first experiment, aiming to determine the effects of intermittency extent in stream biofilm functioning started and the first results seem to be more than promising! In fact, the aim of this experiment is to evaluate if the length of the dry period matters for the recovery capacity of the biofilms with the flow onset. Needless to say, results from these 3 months provide evidence of the success of the facility as a whole in terms of control of the environmental variables influencing freshwater biofilms in Mediterranean streams (such as light, nutrients, water velocity, …).
View News of 22/05/2012 and photos with the evolution of the experiment.
