. 2018 Dec 3;374(1764):20180010. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2018.0010

Table 2.

Summary of mesocosm and microcosm studies investigating ecosystem processes in relation to salinity changes. DE, decomposition; ME, metabolism; BP, biomass production; RD, response direction of measured variables with increasing salinity (↓ negative association, ↑ positive association, ∩ inverted U-shaped, — no clear response pattern); ref., reference; DO, dissolved oxygen.

process	country and climate	experimental unit	treatments	response variable (method)	RD	ref.
DE	Australia, semiarid	mesocosms colonized by microorganism	three salt types (sea salt, NaCl and NaHCO₃), two salinity levels (1, 10 mS cm⁻¹)	% leaf mass loss (fine leaf bags) fungal biomass (ergosterol measurement)	↓ —	[39]
DE	Australia, semiarid	mesocosms colonized by microorganism	six salt (NaCl) concentrations: (0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.5, 1 mS cm⁻¹)	% leaf mass loss (fine leaf bags)	∩—	[39]
DE	Spain, semiarid	artificial flow-through stream systems colonized with invertebrates and microorganisms	three salt concentrations (sea salt): 5, 10 and 15 mS cm⁻¹, as repeated pulses of 3 h duration	leaf mass loss (coarse litter bags, Populus nigra) fungal biomass (as ergosterol) biofilm biomass (chlorophyll a)	↓ ∩ —↓	[43]
DE	Portugal, humid	microcosms conditioned with 5000 fungal conidia	four salinity (NaCl) concentrations: 0, 2.8, 5.7, 11.4 mS cm⁻¹	leaf mass loss (discs of Quercus robur L.) fungal respiration, growth and sporulation rate (oxygen consumption, counting of conidia)	↓ ↓	[44]
ME/BP	Argentina, humid	recirculating microcosms with stream colonized glass tiles	salinity (NaCl) pulse (30 min d⁻¹) and press (72 h) exposure with 1.5 mS cm⁻¹, control with no salt addition	biofilm biomass (chlorophyll a concentration) bacterial density (counting) community respiration (oxygen consumption)	— ↓ ↓	[51]
BP	Germany, humid	microcosm with stream conditioned periphyton	salinity (Na₂SO₄ and CaCl₂) at 2 and 5 mS cm⁻¹, control 0.6 mS cm⁻¹	biofilm biomass (minimal fluorescence of photosynthesis pigments)	↑	[52]
ME	USA, humid	mesocosms with invertebrate community	three salt types (NaHCO₃, MgSO₄, NaCl) with six concentrations between 0.07 and 4.4 mS cm⁻¹	difference between day and night-time DO concentrations (open-system, single-station approach for continuous DO measurement)	↓	[53]