Abstract: |
The annual nutrient load of many lakes is disproportionately dominated by a
few loading events linked to large storms (Carpenter et al. 2015, 2018). Storm
events can lead to increased nutrient loads to lakes through ‘flashy’ runoff
that delivers nutrients from the watershed (Joosse and Baker 2011). Given the
numerous interacting ecosystem responses to storm events, individual lakes are
unlikely to respond to storm-induced nutrient loading in the same manner.
In particular, the structure of the lake food web (e.g. connectivity,
functional redundancy, structural asymmetry), can play a large role in mediating
ecosystem resilience to disturbances such as pulse nutrient loading (McMeans et
al. 2016; Calizza et al. 2019; Pelletier et al. 2020). Thus, we wanted to assess
the relationship between food web structure and ecosystem resilience. We
hypothesized that food webs with weak top grazer density and food webs that
efficiently cycled energy between benthic and pelagic pathways would confer
greater ecosystem resilience by diversifying the trophic pathways that control
primary production and creating more linkages to benthic nutrient recycling
pathways that can decrease primary production. In order to address these
hypotheses, we experimentally tested the ecosystem resilience of multiple food
web structures to simulated storm nutrient loading in six large experimental
ponds. We then assessed changes in the daily time-series of state variables such
as chlorophyll-a (an index of algal biomass) and to observe the ecosystem
response to pulse nutrient loading.
Calizza, E., L. Rossi, G. Careddu, S. S. Caputi, and M. L. Costantini. 2019.
Species richness and vulnerability to disturbance propagation in real food webs.
Sci. Rep. 9: 19331. doi:10.1038/s41598-019-55960-8
Carpenter, S. R., E. G. Booth, and C. J. Kucharik. 2018. Extreme precipitation
and phosphorus loads from two agricultural watersheds. Limnol. Oceanogr. 63:
1221–1233. doi:10.1002/lno.10767
Carpenter, S. R., E. G. Booth, C. J. Kucharik, and R. C. Lathrop. 2015.
Extreme daily loads: role in annual phosphorus input to a north temperate lake.
Aquat. Sci. 77: 71–79. doi:10.1007/s00027-014-0364-5
Joosse, P. J., and D. B. Baker. 2011. Context for re-evaluating agricultural
source phosphorus loadings to the great lakes. Can. J. Soil Sci. 91: 317–327.
doi:10.4141/cjss10005
McMeans, B., K. McCann, T. Tunney, A. Fisk, A. Muir, N. Lester, B. Shuter, and
N. Rooney. 2016. The adaptive capacity of lake food webs: from individuals to
ecosystems. Ecol. Monogr. 86: 4–19.
Pelletier, M. C., J. Ebersole, K. Mulvaney, and others. 2020. Resilience of
aquatic systems: Review and management implications. Aquat. Sci. 82.
doi:10.1007/s00027-020-00717-z
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