Publication Date:
2009-07-25
Description:
Productivity denotes the rate of biomass synthesis in ecosystems and is a fundamental characteristic that frames ecosystem function and management. Limitation of productivity by nutrient availability is an established paradigm for lake ecosystems. Here, we assess the relevance of this paradigm for a majority of the world's small, nutrient-poor lakes, with different concentrations of coloured organic matter. By comparing small unproductive lakes along a water colour gradient, we show that coloured terrestrial organic matter controls the key process for new biomass synthesis (the benthic primary production) through its effects on light attenuation. We also show that this translates into effects on production and biomass of higher trophic levels (benthic invertebrates and fish). These results are inconsistent with the idea that nutrient supply primarily controls lake productivity, and we propose that a large share of the world's unproductive lakes, within natural variations of organic carbon and nutrient input, are limited by light and not by nutrients. We anticipate that our result will have implications for understanding lake ecosystem function and responses to environmental change. Catchment export of coloured organic matter is sensitive to short-term natural variability and long-term, large-scale changes, driven by climate and different anthropogenic influences. Consequently, changes in terrestrial carbon cycling will have pronounced effects on most lake ecosystems by mediating changes in light climate and productivity of lakes.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Karlsson, Jan -- Bystrom, Par -- Ask, Jenny -- Ask, Per -- Persson, Lennart -- Jansson, Mats -- England -- Nature. 2009 Jul 23;460(7254):506-9. doi: 10.1038/nature08179.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Climate Impacts Research Centre, Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umea University, Box 62, SE-981 07 Abisko, Sweden. Jan.Karlsson@emg.umu.se〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19626113" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
Biomass
;
Carbon/analysis/metabolism
;
*Ecosystem
;
Eukaryota/physiology
;
Fishes/physiology
;
Fresh Water/*chemistry
;
*Light
;
Nitrogen/analysis
;
Phosphorus/analysis
;
Sweden
Print ISSN:
0028-0836
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4687
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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