Authors: Fabien Cremona Alo Laas Lauri Arvola Don Pierson Peeter Nõges Tiina Nõges
Publish Date: 2016/06/17
Volume: 19, Issue: 8, Pages: 1386-1400
Abstract
Autotrophic structure refers to the partitioning of wholeecosystem primary production between benthic and planktonic primary producers Autotrophic structure remains poorly understood especially because of the paucity of estimates regarding benthic primary production We used a conceptual model for numerically exploring the autotrophic structure of 13 hemiboreal lakes situated in the Baltic Sea catchment We also used diel variations in primary production profiles to graphically evaluate levels of light and/or nutrient limitation in lakes The input morphometric data light extinction coefficients and dissolved carbon parameters were mostly obtained from in situ measurements Results revealed that cross and withinlake autotrophic structure varied greatly one lake was clearly dominated by benthic production and three lakes by phytoplankton production In the rest phytoplankton production was generally dominant but switch to benthic dominance was possible The modelled primary production profiles varied according to lake water clarity and bathymetry Our results clearly indicate that the relative contribution of benthic primary production to wholelake primary production should be taken into account in studies about hemiboreal and boreal lakesThe authors are grateful to Toomas Kõiv Ingmar Ott and Pille Meinson for assistance in data analysing Sean C Godwin Simon Fraser University provided great help for the benthic production calculations This research was supported by StartUp Personal Research Grant PUT 777 to FC and IUT 212 of the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research Estonian Science Foundation grant ETF9102 the EU through the European Regional Development Fund program “Research Internationalisation” project LIMNO the Swiss Grant “Enhancing public environmental monitoring capacities” and MARS project Managing Aquatic ecosystems and water Resources under multiple Stress funded under the 7th EU Framework Programme Theme 6 Environment including Climate Change Contract No 603378 http//wwwmarsprojecteu
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