COMMUNITY RESPIRATION RATES IN MCMURDO DRY VALLEY LAKES: QUANTIFYING THE ACTIVITY OF THE ELECTRON TRANSPORT SYSTEM (ETS)

• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: McMurdo Dry Valleys LTERByrd Polar Research Center 108 Scott Hall1090 Carmack RdColumbusColumbusOH43210-1002USA(614) 292-4697 2011
• Subjects: lake; limnology; respiration; electron transport system; ETS; Antarctica; McMurdo Dry Valleys; Bonney; Fryxell; Hoare; Lake Bonney; Lake Fryxell; Lake Hoare; Bonney Lake; East Lake; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10255/dryad.14639; http://metacat.lternet.edu/knb/metacat/knb-lter-mcm.0043.2/xml

An important part of the McMurdo Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) is monitoring of spatial and temporal patterns, and processes that control net primary production (carbon dynamics) in perennial ice-covered lakes. One of the primary losses of carbon fixed by phytoplankton is through respiration, directly by the phytoplankton themselves and secondarily through the metabolic contributions of heterotrophic organisms such as bacterioplankton and protozoa. The coupling of low metabolic activity and supersaturated gases in the water column prohibits a direct measurement of respiration. Therefore, we measure the respiratory electron transport system (ETS) activity which drives oxidative phosphorylation, and hence oxygen consumption in all aerobic organisms (Packard 1985). This data set addresses this core area of research and estimates a community-wide respiration rate at specific depths in McMurdo Dry Valley lakes.