Climate-induced changes in carbon flows across the plant-consumer interface in a small subarctic lake

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Belle, Simon, Nilsson, Jenny L., Tõnno, Ilmar, Freiberg, Rene, Vrede, Tobias, Goedkoop, Willem
• Other Authors: Centre for Limnology. Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Nature 2019
• Subjects: climate; carbon flows; subarctic lake; articles; Jenny; Subarctic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10492/7939; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-53541-3

Reconstructions of past food web dynamics are necessary for better understanding long-term impacts of climate change on subarctic lakes. We studied elemental and stable isotopic composition of sedimentary organic matter, photosynthetic pigments and carbon stable isotopic composition of Daphnia (cladocera; crustacea) resting eggs (δ13cclado) in a sediment record from a small subarctic lake. We examined how regional climate and landscape changes over the last 5800 years affected the relative importance of allochthonous and autochthonous carbon transfer to zooplankton. Overall, δ13cclado values were well in line with the range of theoretical values of aquatic primary producers, confirming that zooplankton consumers in subarctic lakes, even in the long-term perspective, are mainly fuelled by autochthonous primary production. Results also revealed greater incorporations of benthic algae into zooplankton biomass in periods that had a warmer and drier climate and clearer water, whereas a colder and wetter climate and lower water transparency induced higher contributions of planktonic algae to Daphnia biomass. This study thus emphasizes long-term influence of terrestrial-aquatic linkages and in- lake processes on the functioning of subarctic lake food webs. This study was funded by the Oscar and Lilli Lamm foundation, FORMAS (Grant Number: 2016-861) and by institutional research grant IUT 21-2. We acknowledge Jenny Ekman and Jonas Lundholm (SLU Umeå, Sweden) and Christian Hossann (INRA PTEF Nancy, France) for assistance in stable isotope analysis, and Malin Kylander (University of Stockholm, Sweden) for XRF core scanning. The PTEF facility is supported by the French National Research Agency through the Laboratory of Excellence ARBRE (ANR-11-LABX-0002-01). Open access funding provided by Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. This study was funded by the Oscar and Lilli Lamm foundation, FORMAS (Grant Number: 2016-861) and by institutional research grant IUT 21-2. We acknowledge Jenny Ekman and Jonas Lundholm ...