Terrestrial organic matter and the productivity of lake ecosystems
Inputs of terrestrial organic matter to inland waters vary across the landscape and are dynamic through time. Our group has been working to understand the implications of these inputs for lake food webs and carbon cycles. In this talk I will describe how a whole lake experiment that contradicted all of our prior predictions led us to a new conceptual model of dissolved organic carbon effects on lake productivity, and how we are testing that new conceptual model with new experiments at several scales. I will also briefly discuss related work that our group is doing on the hydrologic controls on carbon processing and on social-ecological dynamics in recreational fisheries.
Host: Sabine Hilt