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- Deininger, Anne, 1987-
(författare)
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Effects of inorganic nitrogen and organic carbon on pelagic food webs in boreal lakes
- 2017
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Anthropogenic activities are increasing inorganic nitrogen (N) loadings to lakes in the northern hemisphere. In many boreal lakes phytoplankton are N limited, wherefore enhanced N input may affect the productivity of pelagic food webs. Simultaneously, global change causes increased inflows of terrestrial dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to boreal lakes. Between clear and humic lakes, whole lake primary and consumer production naturally differs. However, research is inconclusive as to what controls pelagic production in these lakes. Further, it is unclear how DOC affects the response of the pelagic food web to enhanced inorganic N availability. The overarching goal of this thesis was to study the effects of inorganic N and organic C for pelagic food webs in boreal lakes. In the thesis, I first identified the main drivers of pelagic production during summer in eight non-manipulated Swedish boreal lakes with naturally low or high DOC. Then I investigated how increased N availability affects the pelagic food chain, and how the response differs with DOC. Therefore, whole lake inorganic N fertilization experiments were conducted in six Swedish boreal lakes across a DOC gradient (low, medium, high) divided into three lake pairs (control, N enriched) with one reference and two impact years. In each lake, I also investigated the response of zooplankton growth using in situ mesocosm experiments excluding planktivores. I found that humic boreal lakes had lower phytoplankton production and biomass than clear water lakes. Further, phytoplankton community composition and food quality differed with DOC. However, high DOC did not reduce pelagic energy mobilization or zooplankton biomass, but promoted a higher dominance of cladoceran relative to copepod species. N addition clearly enhanced phytoplankton biomass and production in the experimental lakes. However, this stimulating N effect decreased with DOC as caused by light limitation. Further, the newly available phytoplankton energy derived from N addition was not efficiently transferred to zooplankton, which indicates a mismatch between producer energy supply and consumer energy use. Indeed, the mesocosm experiment revealed that decreased food quality of phytoplankton in response to N addition resulted in reduced food web performance, especially in clearer lakes. In humic lakes, zooplankton production and food web efficiency were clearly more resilient to N addition. In summary, my thesis suggests that any change in the landscape that enhances inorganic N availability will especially affect pelagic food webs in clear water lakes. In contrast, brownification will result in more lakes being resilient to eutrophication caused by enhanced N deposition.
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| 2. |
- Deininger, Anne, et al.
(författare)
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Nitrogen effects on the pelagic food web are modified by dissolved organic carbon
- 2017
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Ingår i: Oecologia. - : SPRINGER. - 0029-8549 .- 1432-1939. ; 184:4, s. 901-916
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Global environmental change has altered the nitrogen (N) cycle and enhanced terrestrial dissolved organic carbon (DOC) loadings to northern boreal lakes. However, it is still unclear how enhanced N availability affects pelagic food web efficiency (FWE) and crustacean zooplankton growth in N limited boreal lakes. Here, we performed in situ mesocosm experiments in six unproductive boreal Swedish lakes, paired across a DOC gradient, with one lake in each pair fertilized with N (2011: reference year; 2012, 2013: impact years). We assessed how zooplankton growth and FWE were affected by changes in pelagic energy mobilization (PEM), food chain length (phytoplankton versus bacterial production based food chain, i.e. PP:BP), and food quality (seston stoichiometry) in response to N fertilization. Although PP, PEM and PP:BP increased in low and medium DOC lakes after N fertilization, consumer growth and FWE were reduced, especially at low DOC-potentially due to reduced phytoplankton food quality [increased C: phosphorus (P); N:P]. At high DOC, N fertilization caused modest increases in PP and PEM, with marginal changes in PP:BP and phytoplankton food quality, which, combined, led to a slight increase in zooplankton growth and FWE. Consequently, at low DOC (<12 mg L-1), increased N availability lowers FWE due to mismatches in food quality demand and supply, whereas at high DOC this mismatch does not occur, and zooplankton production and FWE may increase. We conclude that the lake DOC level is critical for predicting the effects of enhanced inorganic N availability on pelagic productivity in boreal lakes.
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| 3. |
- Deininger, Anne, et al.
(författare)
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Pelagic food web response to whole lake N fertilization
- 2017
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Ingår i: Limnology and Oceanography. - : Wiley. - 0024-3590 .- 1939-5590. ; 62:4, s. 1498-1511
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Anthropogenic activities are increasing inorganic nitrogen (N) loadings to unproductive boreal lakes. In many of these lakes phytoplankton are N limited, consequently N fertilization may affect ecosystem productivity and consumer resource use. Here, we conducted whole lake inorganic N fertilization experiments with six small N limited unproductive boreal lakes (three control and three N enriched) in an area receiving low N deposition with one reference and two impact years. Our aim was to assess the effects of N fertilization on pelagic biomass production and consumer resource use. We found that phytoplankton primary production (PP) and biomass, and the PP: bacterioplankton production ratio increased after fertilization. As expected, the relative contribution of phytoplankton derived resources (autochthony) that supported the crustacean zooplankton community increased. Yet, the response in the consumer community was modest with autochthony only increasing in one of the three major zooplankton groups and with no effect on zooplankton biomass. In conclusion, our findings imply that newly available phytoplankton energy derived from N fertilization was not efficiently transferred up to zooplankton, indicating a mismatch between producer energy supply and consumer energy use with potential accumulation of phytoplankton biomass as the result.
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| 4. |
- Deininger, Anne, et al.
(författare)
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Phytoplankton response to whole lake inorganic N fertilization along a gradient in dissolved organic carbon
- 2017
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Ingår i: Ecology. - : Wiley. - 0012-9658 .- 1939-9170. ; 98:4, s. 982-994
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Global change has increased inorganic nitrogen (N) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC; i.e. ‘browning’) inputs to northern hemisphere boreal lakes. However, we do not know how phytoplankton in nutrient poor lake ecosystems of different DOC concentration respond to increased N availability. Here, we monitored changes in phytoplankton production, biomass and community composition in response to whole lake inorganic N fertilization in six boreal unproductive Swedish lakes divided into three lake pairs (control, N enriched) at three DOC levels (low, medium, high), with one reference year (2011) and two impact years (2012, 2013). We found that phytoplankton biomass and production decreased with DOC concentration before N fertilization. Further, phytoplankton community composition also differed with respect to DOC, with a dominance of non-flagellated autotrophs at low DOC towards an increasing dominance of flagellated autotrophs with increased lake DOC concentration. The N fertilization increased phytoplankton biomass and production in all lakes, but did not affect phytoplankton community composition. However, the net response in biomass and production to N fertilization declined with increasing DOC, implying that the lake DOC concentration is critical in order to infer phytoplankton responses to N fertilization, and that the system switches from being primarily nutrient limited to becoming increasingly light limited with increased DOC concentration. In conclusion, our results show that browning will reduce phytoplankton production and biomass and influence phytoplankton community composition, whereas increased inorganic N loadings from deposition, forestry or other land use will primarily enhance phytoplankton biomass and production. Together, any change in the landscape that enhances inorganic N availability will increase phytoplankton production and biomass, but the positive effects of N will be much weaker or even neutralized in browner lakes as caused by light limitation.
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