Reconciling the role of terrestrial leaves in pond food webs: a whole‐ecosystem experiment

Holgerson, Meredith A.; Post, David M.; Skelly, David K.

doi:10.1890/15-1848.1

Cited by 35 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…The d 13 C HC values ranged from À35& to À31& in this study (Figure 4), which was indicative of a strong reliance on autochthonous organic matter, as d 13 C of pelagic primary producers usually ranges from À36& to À25& (Vuorio, Meili, & Sarvala, 2006;Wang, Liu, Peng, & Wang, 2013). Our study thus supports the conjecture that aquatic consumers are mainly fuelled by autochthonous primary production (Holgerson, Post, & Skelly, 2016;Lau, Sundh, Vrede, Pickova, & Goedkoop, 2014;Tanentzap et al, 2017). However, relatively heavy d 13 C HC values (from À28.7 to À21.8&) were T A B L E 1 Summary of statistics for the general additive model (GAM) fitted with a Gaussian distribution to d 13 C HC values.…”

Section: Carbon Processing In Benthic Food Webs and Climate Changesupporting

confidence: 87%

Long‐term effects of climate change on carbon flows through benthic secondary production in small lakes

et al. 2018

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A palaeolimnological study, covering the last c. 12,000 years, was conducted in a small subalpine lake located in the Alps to study climate change impacts on carbon flows through food webs in small lakes. We used analysis of sedimentary pigments and carbon stable isotopic composition of chironomid remains (δ13CHC) to reconstruct past dynamics of phytoplankton community and carbon sources sustaining benthic consumers. Chironomid biomass was sustained by a combination of allochthonous, autochthonous and CH4‐derived organic matters, and their relative contributions were correlated to changes in temperature. Relatively high terrestrial contributions to chironomid biomass were observed during period of the Holocene when in‐lake production was low. Relatively high incorporation of CH4‐derived carbon to chironomid biomass was found during anoxic events co‐occurring with the Holocene thermal maximum. Results were then compared with those collected in a small boreal lake in Estonia. We tested the hypothesis that responses in carbon flows through benthic food web to past climate change would be similar between these lakes. We found a negative correlation between δ13CHC values of both lakes and inferred air temperature, suggesting that temperature was the major driver to different food sources being incorporated into chironomid biomass. Our study demonstrated that air temperature was the principal driver of the energy flows through benthic food web in the studied small lakes. We conjectured that carbon cycling in food webs of small lakes might be strongly sensitive to climate change.

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Section: Carbon Processing In Benthic Food Webs and Climate Changesupporting

confidence: 87%

Long‐term effects of climate change on carbon flows through benthic secondary production in small lakes

et al. 2018

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“…Consequently, while it is predicted that IRES should generally shift their trophic base from allochthonous to autochthonous sources as they dry (McIntosh et al 2017), evidence for shifts in organic matter sources supporting IRES food webs as they become more intermittent have been largely equivocal. Both algae (Bunn et al 2003, Dekar et al 2009, Holgerson et al 2016, Pettit et al 2016) and terrestrial detritus (Reid et al 2008, Leigh et al 2010, Hunt et al 2012) have been identified as key sources of the organic matter assimilated by metazoan consumers across intermittent and ephemeral freshwater habitats. Thus, the mechanisms underlying differences in the trophic base of IRES food webs might largely be accredited to differences in additional, regional ecological factors (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Flow intermittency influences the trophic base, but not the overall diversity of alpine stream food webs

2019

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Alpine streams can exhibit naturally high levels of flow intermittency. However, how flow intermittency in alpine streams affects ecosystem functions such as food web trophic structure is virtually unknown. Here, we characterized the trophic diversity of aquatic food webs in 28 headwater streams of the Val Roseg, a glacierized alpine catchment. We compared stable isotope (δ13C and δ15N) trophic indices to high temporal resolution data on flow intermittency. Overall trophic diversity, food chain length and diversity of basal resource use did not differ to a large extent across streams. In contrast, gradient and mixing model analysis indicated that primary consumers assimilated proportionally more periphyton and less allochthonous organic matter in more intermittent streams. Higher coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM) C:N ratios were an additional driver of changes in macroinvertebrate diets. These results indicate that the trophic base of stream food webs shifts away from terrestrial organic matter to autochthonous organic matter as flow intermittency increases, most likely due to reduced CPOM conditioning in dry streams. This study highlights the significant, yet gradual shifts in ecosystem function that occur as streamflow becomes more intermittent in alpine streams. As alpine streams become more intermittent, identifying which functional changes occur via gradual as opposed to threshold responses is likely to be vitally important to their management and conservation.

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“…Holgerson et al. () traced the flow of 15 N‐enriched sugar maple ( Acer saccharum ) leaf litter through a single pond in a temperate forest and found that nutrients from terrestrial leaves enriched an algal‐based food web. Further, they found that most consumers relied on algae derived from litter resources instead of directly relying on litter or microbes, despite low light and net heterotrophic conditions.…”

Section: Theme 1: Evidence For the Role Of Litter As A Reciprocal Submentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, many small wetlands can maintain algal communities that persist under low‐light conditions (Holgerson et al. ), and it has been suggested that these algal communities are extremely important to wetland communities due to their high nutrient concentrations relative to litter inputs (Batzer et al. ).…”

Section: Theme 5: Role Of Litter Relative To Other Subsides Biotic Fmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reviewing the role of plant litter inputs to forested wetland ecosystems: leafing through the literature

Stoler

Relyea

2020

Ecological Monographs

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The input of senescent terrestrial leaf litter into soil and aquatic ecosystems is one of the most massive cyclic subsidies on Earth, particularly within forested ecosystems. For freshwater systems embedded within forests, litter inputs provide a vital source of energy and nutrients that allows greater production than in situ resources can provide. In return, freshwater food webs can provide an enormous amount of material to the terrestrial landscape through biotic respiration, photosynthesis, and organism emergence. Most research concerning this important aquatic-terrestrial link has focused on lotic ecosystems (i.e., streams and rivers); far less attention has been given to its role in lentic systems (i.e., wetlands and lakes). A focus on small forested wetlands is particularly important, as these systems account for a disproportionate amount of global carbon flux relative to their spatial coverage, and the decomposition of leaf litter is a major contributor. Here, we review six themes: (1) the evidence for the role of leaf litter inputs as an ecologically important subsidy in forested wetlands; (2) the bottom-up effects of quantitative and qualitative variation in litter inputs; (3) how diversity in litter mixtures can alter ecological functioning; (4) evidence for top-down consequences of litter inputs through toxic effects on predators and parasites, and the alteration of predator-prey interactions; (5) the relevance of our review to other research fields by considering the role of litter inputs relative to other types of subsidies and environmental gradients (e.g., temperature, canopy cover, and hydrology); and (6) the interaction of litter subsidies with anthropogenic disturbances. We conclude by highlighting several high-priority research questions and providing suggestions for future research on the role of litter subsidies in freshwater ecosystems. 3: Effects of leaf litter mixingInsufficient evidence exists to determine the effects of mixing litter species on total litter decay rates.Higher trophic levels exhibit weak responses to increased litter diversity.Forested wetland food webs exhibit a stronger response to changes in average primary and secondary chemical attributes of litter mixtures relative to changes in litter species or chemical diversity.Sterner and Schulz (1998), Cohen et al. (2014), Stoler et al. (2016b) Consumers exhibit nonlinear responses to changes in litter species evenness.

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Reconciling the role of terrestrial leaves in pond food webs: a whole‐ecosystem experiment

Cited by 35 publications

References 88 publications

Long‐term effects of climate change on carbon flows through benthic secondary production in small lakes

Long‐term effects of climate change on carbon flows through benthic secondary production in small lakes

Flow intermittency influences the trophic base, but not the overall diversity of alpine stream food webs

Reviewing the role of plant litter inputs to forested wetland ecosystems: leafing through the literature

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