Collaborative Research: Terrestrial Carbon Subsidies of Aquatic Food Webs

湖泊中大部分有机碳来源于周围的陆地生态系统，这些陆地碳在湖泊中的退化意味着湖泊食物网可能受到外部来源的支持，而不仅仅是内部初级生产。先前在小湖泊中使用无机碳-13添加剂的实验显示了水生食物网的显著陆地支持。该项目将直接解决陆地对湖泊食物网的支持的相对重要性，湖泊的大小是以前研究的湖泊的4-10倍。碳-13将被添加到两个大湖中，并用研究人员开发的几个模型进行分析。结果将确定这些较大湖泊的重要性陆地补贴，这些湖泊在威斯康星州和密歇根州北部高地的大小上处于前四分之一，并代表了全球一大类温带湖泊。这项研究将有助于通过评估湖泊大小的差异是否影响食物网和碳循环来了解景观背景下的湖泊。该项目的更广泛影响包括促进公众对湖泊生态系统的了解以及对研究生和本科生的研究培训。结果将被纳入一个正在进行的关于北部高地湖区未来的外展工作。

Much of the organic carbon in lakes originates from surrounding terrestrial ecosystems.Degradation of this terrestrial carbon in lakes implies that lake food webs are potentiallysupported by external sources, rather than solely by internal primary production. Priorexperiments in small lakes using inorganic carbon-13 additions revealed significantterrestrial support of aquatic food webs. This project will directly address the relativeimportance of terrestrial support of food webs in lakes 4-10 times the size of lakesstudied previously. Carbon-13 will be added to two large lakes and analyzed withseveral models developed by the investigators. Results will determine the importanceterrestrial subsidies in these larger lakes that are in the top quartile for size in theNorthern Highlands of Wisconsin and Michigan and representative of a large class oftemperate lakes globally.This research will contribute to understanding lakes in a landscape context byassessing whether differences in lake size influence food webs and carbon cycling.Broader impacts of this project include promoting public understanding of lakeecosystems as well as research training for graduate and undergraduate students.Results will be incorporated into an ongoing outreach effort on the future of the NorthernHighland Lake District.