A Framework for Understanding Variation in Pelagic Gross Primary Production of Lake Ecosystems

Kelly, Patrick T.; Solomon, Christopher T.; Zwart, Jacob A.; Jones, Stuart

doi:10.1007/s10021-018-0226-4

Cited by 71 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Browning also alleviates pelagic algal nutrient limitation by shading benthic competitors and preventing them from intercepting the release of nutrients from the sediments (Vasconcelos et al, 2016). Consequently, light extinction (which limits GPP) and nutrient availability (which stimulates GPP) are non-linearly related to DOC concentration (Seekell et al, 2015;Kelly et al 2018). This is also demonstrated in our results (Fig.…”

Section: Response Of Primary Producers To Brownificationsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…It has been suggested that whole-lake GPP should fall to negligible levels when DOC concentrations exceed a threshold of 15 mg L -1 due to extreme shading effects (e.g. Hanson et al 2003;Seekell et al, 2015;Kelly et al 2018). This study found that high pelagic GPP production persisted well above that threshold (Figs.…”

Section: Response Of Primary Producers To Brownificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Brownification can also physically alter small lakes by increasing the stability of thermal stratification, with multiple potential effects on algal biomass and productivity (Fee et al, 1996;Houser, 2006;Brothers et al, 2014). Above a concentration threshold of 5-15 mg L -1 , the negative influence of DOC shading on autochthonous primary production exceeds the positive effects of DOC on resource availability via direct supply of fixed C and potential fertilization of autochthonous production (Karlsson et al 2009;Jones et al, 2012;Seekell et al, 2015;Kelly et al 2018). Additionally, increased DOC concentrations can alter phytoplankton species composition and diversity (Lenard and Ejankowski, 2017;Urrutia-Cordero et al, 2017), which in turn can affect the aquatic food web (McGowen et al, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Incomplete resilience of a shallow lake to a brownification event

Kazanjian

Köhler

Hilt

2019

Preprint

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Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations in many freshwater ecosystems of the northern hemisphere have increased in recent decades due to additional terrestrial inputs. This phenomenon, known as brownification, can strongly alter the physical, chemical, and biological traits of aquatic ecosystems. Extreme rainfall can also cause sudden brownification, known as blackwater events in rivers, while longer term effects on lakes are unknown. Here, we investigated the resilience of a small, temperate, shallow lake to a strong natural flooding-induced brownification event in 2011-2012. From initial DOC and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations of ~12 and 0.04 mg L -1 , respectively, the lake rapidly reached peak DOC and TP concentrations of 60 and 0.35 mg L -1 , respectively. By the following year, water levels had returned close to initial values, yet two additional years of monitoring (until summer 2015) and a more recent sample in spring 2019 showed that the lake did not fully return to its pre-brownification state. Instead, DOC and TP concentrations plateaued at concentrations respectively 1.5-fold and twofold greater than pre-brownification values within less than two years and remained at these concentrations in spring 2019. During this initial recovery period the lake exhibited a decline of phytoplankton and a partial recovery of summer periphyton biomass and production, albeit a full return to pre-brownification values was not recorded in either case. DOC and TP concentrations were positively correlated to phytoplankton biomass and negatively to periphyton. As increases in phytoplankton production outpaced decreasing periphyton production, the net result of this brownification event has been an increase in whole-lake areal summertime primary production. This incomplete resilience to a flooding-induced brownification event implies consequences for several ecological and biogeochemical functions of shallow lakes that warrant further investigation and might contribute to the gradual increase of freshwater DOC concentrations in the northern hemisphere.

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Section: Response Of Primary Producers To Brownificationsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Response Of Primary Producers To Brownificationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Incomplete resilience of a shallow lake to a brownification event

Kazanjian

Köhler

Hilt

2019

Preprint

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“…Based on the current understanding of potential drivers of unimodality, this was not entirely unexpected. It has been hypothesized that lake size, which we were unable to control for in our study, alters the DOC concentration at which peak productivity would be observed (Kelly, Solomon, Zwart, & Jones, 2018). The influence of lake size may therefore confound the observation of a cross-lake unimodality in our data set.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…Furthermore, while the DOC concentration at peak productivity varies among regions (past work has reported peaks ranging from ~1 mg/L (Finstad et al, ) to 15 mg/L (Hanson, Bade, Carpenter, & Kratz, )), the range of DOC concentrations spanned by any single lake over time in our dataset was small compared to the range of DOC concentrations over which unimodal relationships have been observed in other cross‐lake studies (e.g., 1.8–21 mg/L (Seekell, Lapierre, Ask et al, ); ~0.1–100 mg/L (Finstad et al, ); 2.2–24.6 mg/L (Hanson et al, )). Lastly, Kelly et al () hypothesized that DOC and P must be tightly coupled in order to detect a unimodal relationship between DOC and productivity. The lack of coupling between DOC and P over time in our study lakes highlights the limitations of using space‐for‐time substitution in predicting the long‐term ecological implications of browning lakes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decoupled trophic responses to long‐term recovery from acidification and associated browning in lakes

Leach

Winslow

Hayes

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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Increases in the concentration of dissolved organic matter (DOM) have been documented in many inland waters in recent decades, a process known as “browning”. Previous studies have often used space‐for‐time substitution to examine the direct consequences of increased DOM on lake ecosystems. However, browning often occurs concomitant with other ecologically important water chemistry changes that may interact with or overwhelm any potential ecological response to browning itself. Here we examine a long‐term (~20 year) dataset of 28 lakes in the Adirondack Park, New York, USA, that have undergone strong browning in response to recovery from acidification. With these data, we explored how primary producer and zooplankton consumer populations changed during this time and what physical and chemical changes best predicted these long‐term ecosystem changes. Our results indicate that changes in primary producers are likely driven by reduced water clarity due to browning, independent of changes in nutrients, counter to previously hypothesized primary producer response to browning. In contrast, declines in calcium concomitant with browning play an important role in driving long‐term declines in zooplankton biomass. Our results indicate that responses to browning at different trophic levels are decoupled from one another. Concomitant chemical changes have important implications for our understanding of the response of aquatic ecosystems to browning.

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Larval fish body growth responses to simultaneous browning and warming

Huss

Dorst

Gårdmark

2021

Ecology and Evolution

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Organisms are facing global climate change and other anthropogenic pressures, but most research on responses to such changes only considers effects of single drivers. Observational studies and physiological experiments suggest temperature increases will lead to faster growth of small fish. Whether this effect of warming holds in more natural food web settings with concurrent changes in other drivers, such as darkening water color (“browning”) is, however, unknown. Here, we set up a pelagic mesocosm experiment with large bags in the Baltic Sea archipelago, inoculated with larval Eurasian perch (Perca fluviatilis) and zooplankton prey and varying in temperature and color, to answer the question how simultaneous warming and browning of coastal food webs impact body growth and survival of larval perch. We found that browning decreased body growth and survival of larval perch, whereas warming increased body growth but had no effect on survival. Based on daily fish body growth estimates based on otolith microstructure analysis, and size composition and abundance of available prey, we explain how these results may come about through a combination of physiological responses to warming and lower foraging efficiency in brown waters. We conclude that larval fish responses to climate change thus may depend on the relative rate and extent of both warming and browning, as they may even cancel each other out.

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A Framework for Understanding Variation in Pelagic Gross Primary Production of Lake Ecosystems

Cited by 71 publications

References 48 publications

Incomplete resilience of a shallow lake to a brownification event

Incomplete resilience of a shallow lake to a brownification event

Decoupled trophic responses to long‐term recovery from acidification and associated browning in lakes

Larval fish body growth responses to simultaneous browning and warming

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