The role of algae in the metabolism of northern peatlands is largely unknown, as is how algae will respond to the rapid climate change being experienced in this region. In this study, we examined patterns in algal productivity, nutrients, and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) during an uncharacteristically wet summer in an Alaskan rich fen. Our sampling was conducted in three large-scale experimental plots where water table position had been manipulated (including both drying and wetting plots and a control) for the previous 4 years. This study allowed us to explore how much ecosystem memory of the antecedent water table manipulations governed algal responses to natural flooding. Despite no differences in water table position between the manipulated plots at the time of sampling, algal primary productivity was consistently higher in the lowered water table plot compared to the control or raised water table plots. In all plots, algal productivity peaked immediately following seasonal maxima in nutrient concentrations. We found a positive relationship between algal productivity and water-column DOC concentrations (r (2) = 0.85, P < 0.001). Using these data, we estimate that algae released approximately 19% of fixed carbon into the water column. Algal exudates were extremely labile in biodegradability assays, decreasing by more than 55% within the first 24 h of incubation. We suggest that algae can be an important component of the photosynthetic community in boreal peatlands and may become increasingly important for energy flow in a more variable climate with more intense droughts and flooding.

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Compared to other temporary aquatic ecosystems, we know relatively little about how inundation frequency and duration (i.e. hydrologic regime) influences the structure of aquatic communities in northern peatlands. In this study, we examined patterns in nutrient availability and aquatic community structure during a natural flooding event in an Alaskan fen where water‐table position had been manipulated in three large‐scale experimental plots during previous years to simulate both drought (lowered water‐table treatment) and flooding (raised water‐table treatment) conditions relative to a control without manipulation. Although the natural flood disrupted the long‐term experimental manipulation, it provided an opportunity to evaluate how variation in past hydrologic regime influences nutrient dynamics and aquatic food web structure during periods of inundation in a northern boreal peatland. Despite similar water depth among experimental plots during the time of sampling (i.e. water was above the peat surface in all plots), water‐column nutrient concentrations were significantly greater in the drought treatment (where water table had been lowered during the previous growing season) compared to the raised water‐table treatment and the control. Algal production increased with enhanced nutrient availability across all water‐table treatments and was most elevated following the rewetting of dry sediments in the drought treatment. Consumer biomass (heterotrophic bacteria and macroinvertebrates) increased with algal production and was significantly greater in the drought treatment compared to the raised water‐table treatment and the control. Consumer biomass decreased into the second year of constant inundation as algal production was constrained by reduced nutrient availability. Stable isotope analysis (13C and 15N) showed that elevated levels of periphyton (i.e. the intact biofilm) associated with enhanced nutrient availability promoted energy transfer to higher trophic levels (grazers and predators) rather than living or dead mosses or vascular plant material. Consumption of algal material by grazers altered the size and composition of the algal community. The algal community shifted from coccoid (edible) to filamentous (inedible) growth forms with increased grazer abundance in the drought treatment, possibly owing to selective grazing. Conversely, there was a similar proportion of edible and inedible taxa in the control and raised treatments where grazers were lower in abundance. Our results show that the legacy effects of drought can regulate aquatic community structure in northern peatlands. Within a predictive context, our findings suggest that conditions of more variable hydrology expected with climate change (i.e. increased frequency of drought) occurring across northern latitudes will promote energy flow to higher trophic levels by releasing nutrient constraints on microalgae during periods of inundation.