Approach

TUMmesa can generate experimental environments that mimic ecological scenarios with advanced methods. Thus, the facility allows a mechanistic test of field-derived research hypotheses, and generation of new hypotheses for examination under field conditions. Preferred objects are near-natural or synthetic ecological communities with well-defined interaction networks that can be studied under changed soil conditions or atmospheric manipulations. A particular focus is the experimental analysis of biodiversity and source–sink relationships in fluxes of resources and energy. The temporal scale of the experiments should cover months to years.