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Carbon dioxide supersaturation promotes primary production in lakes
Author(s) -
Jansson Mats,
Karlsson Jan,
Jonsson Anders
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
ecology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.852
H-Index - 265
eISSN - 1461-0248
pISSN - 1461-023X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2012.01762.x
Subject(s) - phytoplankton , supersaturation , environmental science , carbon dioxide , nutrient , pelagic zone , biomass (ecology) , primary production , primary producers , productivity , carbon fibers , carbon cycle , ecology , total organic carbon , dissolved organic carbon , environmental chemistry , oceanography , ecosystem , chemistry , biology , geology , materials science , macroeconomics , organic chemistry , composite number , economics , composite material
Ecology Letters (2012) Abstract A majority of the world’s lakes are supersaturated with respect to carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). By experimental manipulation of the CO 2 concentration in supersaturated boreal lakes, we demonstrate that phytoplankton primary production was up to 10 times higher in supersaturated lake water in comparison with water with CO 2 at equilibrium concentrations and that CO 2 , together with nutrients, explained most of the variation in pelagic primary production and phytoplankton biomass over a wide variety of unproductive lakes. These results suggest that phytoplankton can be co‐limited by CO 2 and nutrients in unproductive lakes. As import of terrestrial organic carbon and its subsequent microbial mineralisation in lakes is a driving force of CO 2 ‐supersaturation our results suggest that lake productivity and carbon cycling may respond to variations in terrestrial organic carbon export, (e.g. caused by land use or climate change) in ways not described before.