Data from a mesocosm experiment on responses of larval fish and their prey to warming and browning

This dataset contains data from from a
mesocom experiment with larval fish as described in the
paper: "Huss, M., van Dorst, R.M., and Gårdmark, A.
(2021) Larval fish body growth responses to simultaneous browning
and warming" The data comes from a fully factorial experiment of
warming and browning in pelagic mesocosms in two adjacent areas in the
Baltic Sea archipelago; an artificially heated coastal bay and a natural
area with ambient temperatures. To answer the question how simultaneous
warming and browning of coastal food webs impact body growth and survival
of larval perch. we innoculated the mesocosms, varying in temperature and
colour, with larval Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis) and
zooplankton prey. Browning was simulated by adding coloured
substances to the mesocosm bags, whereas the water masses surrounding them
in the heated and the natural bay provided the temperature treatment. The
main result is that browning decreased body growth and survival of larval
perch, whereas warming increased body growth but had no effect on
survival. To understand these results, data on daily
fish body growth estimates based on otolith microstructure
analysis and size composition and abundance of available prey
were analysed.  The overall conclusion is that larval fish
responses to climate change may depend on the relative rate and extent of
both warming and browning, as that they may even cancel each other out.