mesocosm

American  

[mee-zuh-koz-uhm, mez-uh-] / ˈmi zəˌkɒz əm, ˈmɛz ə- /

noun

Environmental Science.

1. a relatively large, controlled outdoor experimental environment or ecosystem, as opposed to one in a laboratory.

   The research facility, with 50 3,000-liter shallow freshwater mesocosms, is one of Europe's largest.

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Etymology

Origin of mesocosm

First recorded in 1980–85; meso- ( def. ) + -cosm ( def. )

Example Sentences

“You have so little space and a limited system. In the mesocosm, you are manipulating a natural system.”

From New York Times

These mesocosm canopies looked much like a pop-up canopy tent, but with mesh screen sides.

From Salon

Best says that her mesocosm experiments are more sophisticated and realistic than lab studies, but less easy to control.

From Nature

In each mesocosm, one plant was surrounded by a mesh penetrated by holes half a micron across.

From Economist

Then, four days from the end, one of the 40-micron meshes in each mesocosm was rotated to sever any hyphae that had penetrated it, and the central plant was then infested with aphids.

From Economist