Spotlight on using constructed ecosystem for understanding the impacts of climate change at the mesocosm level

Climate change is a phrase that has entered the popular lexicon. But, beyond temperature and sea level rise, much of the world’s population remains ignorant of the other effects of unabated climate change. One such impact is the effect of climate change on the world’s food supply. Specifically, temperature rise may affect crops resilience and yield. This, in combination with many of the world’s grain production regions situated close to the coast meant that sea level rise and saltwater intrusion may have a significant negative effect on the resilience of the world’s food supply system. Hence, researchers have set forth on the quest to understand the effect of climate change on vegetation growth using constructed wetlands. Such lab-based constructed wetlands enable the simulation of temperature rise and changes in water salinity thought to be mediated by anticipated climate change. One research thrust in this endeavor is in understanding how temperature rise would affect the types and relative abundance of important nitrogen-fixing bacteria that nourishes the root microenvironment in promoting plant health. As an extension to the concept, the possible use of bioaugmentation in resupplying nitrogen-fixing bacteria to soil that is depleted in this class of microbes has also been studied. But, a more far-reaching implication of the work lies in expanding the system to understand how a combination of temperature and sea level rise would affect mangrove regions around coastal areas in the world. Specifically, mangrove regions help serve as a sponge during periods of excessive rain, storms or high tide; thereby, offering coastal protection. However, health of mangrove is deeply connected to salinity of water and temperature rise, and together with the ecosystem that it supports, holds important implications on how coastal wetlands would likely play a frontline role in ameliorating the effects of unbated climate change in this century and beyond. Overall, constructed wetlands in lab offer a controlled experimental platform for systematic understanding of the effects of climate change on vegetation. But, its larger incarnation in the real-world, for example, in mangrove regions around coastal cities in the world, would provide a reality check on how resilient our extant wetlands are to the effects of climate change. Judging by the erosion of many wetlands around the world due to a combination of sea level rise and temperature increase, the future looks bleak.