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- Hotchkiss, Erin, et al.
(author)
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Modeling priming effects on microbial consumption of dissolved organic carbon in rivers
- 2014
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In: Journal of Geophysical Research - Biogeosciences. - 2169-8953 .- 2169-8961. ; 119:5, s. 982-995
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Rivers receive and process large quantities of terrestrial dissolved organic carbon (DOC). Biologically available (unstable) DOC leached from primary producers may stimulate (i.e., prime) the consumption of more stable terrestrially derived DOC by heterotrophic microbes. We measured microbial DOC consumption (i.e., decay rates) from contrasting C sources in 10 rivers in the western and Midwestern United States using short-term bioassays of river water, soil and algal leachates, glucose, and commercial humate. We added inorganic nutrients (ammonium and phosphorus) to a subset of bioassays. We also amended a subset of river, soil, and commercial humate bioassays with glucose or algal leachates to test the hypothesis that unstable DOC primes consumption of more stable DOC. We used prior measurements of source-specific DOC bioavailability, linked with a Bayesian process model, to estimate means and posterior probability distributions for source-specific DOC decay rates in multisource bioassays. Modeled priming effects ranged from a -130 to +370% change in more stable DOC decay when incubated with unstable DOC. Glucose increased modeled river DOC decay by an average of 87% among all rivers. Glucose and algal leachates increased soil leachate and commercial humate decay by an average of 25% above background rates. Inorganic nutrient additions did not have consistent effects on DOC decay, likely because most of the study rivers had high ambient background nutrients. Our results demonstrate that the priming effect can augment DOC decay in rivers. In addition, Bayesian models can be used to estimate mechanisms driving aquatic ecosystem processes that are difficult to measure directly.
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| 2. |
- Hotchkiss, Erin R, et al.
(author)
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Linking calcification by exotic snails to stream inorganic carbon cycling.
- 2010
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In: Oecologia. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0029-8549 .- 1432-1939. ; 163:1, s. 235-44
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Biotic calcification is rarely considered in freshwater C budgets, despite calculations suggesting that calcifying animals can alter inorganic C cycling. Most studies that have quantified biocalcification in aquatic ecosystems have not directly linked CO(2) fluxes from biocalcification with whole-ecosystem rates of inorganic C cycling. The freshwater snail, Melanoides tuberculata, has achieved a high abundance and 37.4 g biomass m(-2) after invading Kelly Warm Springs in Grand Teton National Park. This high biomass suggests that introduced populations of Melanoides may alter ecosystem processes. We measured Melanoides growth rates and biomass to calculate the production of biomass, shell mass, and CO(2). We compared Melanoides biomass and inorganic C production with ecosystem C pools and fluxes, as well as with published rates of CO(2) production by other calcifying organisms. Melanoides calcification in Kelly Warm Springs produced 12.1 mmol CO(2) m(-2) day(-1) during summer months. We measured high rates of gross primary productivity and respiration in Kelly Warm Springs (-378 and 533 mmol CO(2) m(-2) day(-1), respectively); CO(2) produced from biocalcification increased net CO(2) production in Kelly Warm Springs from 155 to 167 mmol CO(2) m(-2) day(-1). This rate of CO(2) production via biocalcification is within the published range of calcification by animals. But these CO(2) fluxes are small when compared to ecosystem C fluxes from stream metabolism. The influence of animals is relative to ecosystem processes, and should always be compared with ecosystem fluxes to quantify the importance of a specific animal in its environment.
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