BE/CBC: The Vertical Organization of Energy, Carbon, and Nutrient Cycles in an Ultraoligotrophic Ecosystem: A Workshop on Crater Lake, Oregon

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This award will support, under the aegis of the Biocomplexity in the Environment initiative, a conference at Oregon State University to examine the vertical organization of energy, carbon, and nutrient cycles in Crater Lake, Oregon. The unusual properties of this ultra-oligotrophic lake result in the vertical stratification of the ecosystem reminiscent of pelagic marine systems. Crater Lake provides a natural laboratory to study the coupling of biological processes, element cycles, and the physics of the environment.Specifically, the award will provide some organizational support for the workshop and travel and subsistence support for experienced and new investigators, as well as students, to participate in presentations and discussions that synthesize the latest scientific understanding of Crater Lake and nutrient cycling. Discussions will also involve how best to proceed in the future to increase our knowledge of such ecosystems. Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the United States (i.e., 590 m), is a closed-basin caldera lake formed after the explosive eruption of Mt. Mazama, ~7700 years ago. The lake, which rests at an elevation of 1882 meters in the Cascade Mountains of south central Oregon, is surrounded by steep caldera walls and has a very small watershed. There are no major inlet streams and no surface outlet. External inflows of nutrients to the lake are low and dominated by precipitation and dry deposition from the atmosphere. Thus, the lake is ultra-oligotrophic and one of the clearest bodies of water on the earth. In spite of its great depth, vertical mixing is relatively rapid (i.e., 3-5 years) and recycled nitrogen is mixed upwards from the hypolimnion representing the largest source of this limiting nutrient.Crater Lake is the centerpiece of one of the premier National Parks in the United States and it provides a unique setting to directly engage the public with compelling educational experiences demonstrating the function of complex aquatic ecosystems and the methods of interdisciplinary field research. It offers a unique resource for the study of the interaction of atmospheric forcing and land surface hydrology with biogeochemical cycles in aquatic ecosystems.