"Increased nutrient concentrations in freshwater ecosystems have had profound impacts on their biodiversity, perhaps none more so than in shallow lakes. It may be that impacted systems such as these are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Increasing temperature and eutrophication are not only linked, but their impacts are similar and thus it has proven very difficult to disentangle their effects. It may be that analysis of rate of change may elucidate the effects of climate change and nutrient enrichment on shallow lake biodiversity, species turnover and ecosystem function. PRECISE seeks to determine the extent and rate of change in shallow lake biodiversity and ecosystem function resulting from eutrophication and climate change. To do this a longer-term perspective is vital, PRECISE consists of three approaches which encompass distinct combinations of climate and nutrient effects at a range of temporal scales. These are: large-scale mesocosm experiment; contemporary time series analysis; and palaeolimnogical analysis. The overarching aim is the determination of the effect of temperature and nutrient concentration on the extent and rate of change in the balance of benthic to pelagic production and biodiversity. This will be achieved by complementing on-going research generating biodiversity data with both direct measurement of algal crop (benthic and pelagic) and the determination of pathways of production by the analysis of stable isotopes. This will be done both in the mesocosm experiment (nutrient and temperature separate) and through time series analysis of observational data (temperature and nutrient together). A meta-analysis of an existing data from sediment cores will compare contemporary change (nutrients and climate together) with change associated with a rapid increase in temperature after the 8.2K cooling (climate alone). These integrated analyses will elucidate on unique climate and nutrient impacts on shallow lake biodiversity and function."