Differential support of lake food webs by three types of terrestrial organic carbon

  1. Jonathan J. Cole1,*,
  2. Stephen R. Carpenter2,
  3. Michael L. Pace1,
  4. Matthew C. Van de Bogert2,
  5. James L. Kitchell2,
  6. James R. Hodgson3

Article first published online: 24 MAR 2006

DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00898.x

Issue

Ecology Letters

Ecology Letters

Volume 9, Issue 5, pages 558–568, May 2006

Additional Information

How to Cite

Cole, J. J., Carpenter, S. R., Pace, M. L., Van de Bogert, M. C., Kitchell, J. L. and Hodgson, J. R. (2006), Differential support of lake food webs by three types of terrestrial organic carbon. Ecology Letters, 9: 558–568. doi: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00898.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Box AB (65 Sharon Turnpike), Millbrook, NY 12545, USA

  2. 2

    Center for Limnology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA

  3. 3

    Department of Biology, St Norbert College, De Pere, WI 54115, USA

* * E-mail: colej@ecostudies.org

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 24 MAR 2006
  2. Article first published online: 24 MAR 2006
  3. Editor, George Hurtt Manuscript received 30 August 2005 First decision made 11 October 2005 Second decision made 22 December 2005 Manuscript accepted 11 January 2005

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Keywords:

  • 13C;
  • allochthony;
  • food web;
  • model;
  • subsidy;
  • whole-lake experiments

Abstract

Organic carbon inputs from outside of ecosystem boundaries potentially subsidize recipient food webs. Four whole-lake additions of dissolved inorganic 13C were made to reveal the pathways of subsidies to lakes from terrestrial dissolved organic carbon (t-DOC), terrestrial particulate organic carbon (t-POC) and terrestrial prey items. Terrestrial DOC, the largest input, was a major subsidy of pelagic bacterial respiration, but little of this bacterial C was passed up the food web. Zooplankton received <2% of their C from the t-DOC to bacteria pathway. Terrestrial POC significantly subsidized the production of both zooplankton and benthic invertebrates, and was passed up the food web to Chaoborus and fishes. This route supplied 33–73% of carbon flow to zooplankton and 20–50% to fishes in non-fertilized lakes. Terrestrial prey, by far the smallest input, provided some fishes with >20% of their carbon. The results show that impacts of cross-ecosystem subsidies depend on characteristics of the imported material, the route of entry into the food web, the types of consumers present, and the productivity of the recipient system.

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