Large mesocosm study in the South West Pacific, New Caledonia Lagoon

Three large mesocosms (~50000 L) were deployed in the New Caledonia lagoon to study the fate of diazotroph-derived nitrogen in the microbial food web over three weeks. Mesocosms were fertilized with 0.8 M phosphate to enhance a diazotroph bloom. We studied diversity and temporal dynamics of the microbial community by 16S sequencing as well as expression dynamics inside and outside of the mesocosms. On the last day, a Trichodesmium bloom developed outside of the mesocosms, which was studied as well (separate dataset).