The role of land use in terrestrial support of boreal lake food webs.

ABSTRACT: There is growing awareness of the importance of cross-boundary energy and nutrient transfers between adjacent ecosystems. Lake ecosystems receive inputs of terrestrial organic matter that microbes can make available to higher level consumers. However, how environmental drivers influence this terrestrial support of benthic and pelagic consumers at multiple trophic levels remains underexplored. Using hydrogen stable isotopes as a tracer of terrestrial organic matter, we find large variation in terrestrial support of aquatic consumers (i.e., consumer allochthony) among 35 boreal lakes. Of 19 different aquatic organisms, benthic consumers show the highest allochthony. Consumer allochthony decreases along an environmental gradient from forested to agricultural catchments, likely due to shifts i

SUBMITTER: Keva O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12000567 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature