Collaborative Research: Terrestrial Carbon Subsidies of Aquatic Food Webs

湖泊中的大部分有机碳来自周围的陆地生态系统。湖泊中陆源碳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。先前在小湖泊中进行的添加无机碳-13的实验显示，水生食物网在陆地上得到了重要支持。该项目将直接解决陆地支持食物网在湖泊中的相对重要性，这些湖泊的规模是之前研究的湖泊的4-10倍。碳-13将被添加到两个大型湖泊中，并用研究人员开发的几个模型进行分析。结果将决定这些较大湖泊的地球补贴的重要性，这些湖泊在威斯康辛州和密歇根州北部高地的大小处于前四分之一，并代表了全球温带湖泊的一大类别。这项研究将通过评估湖泊大小的差异是否会影响食物网和碳循环，有助于在景观背景下理解湖泊。该项目更广泛的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。结果将纳入正在进行的关于北高地湖区未来的外联努力。

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.