title: From bacteria to piscivorous fish: estimates of whole-lake and component-specific metabolism with an ecosystem approach.
abstract: The influence of functional group specific production and respiration patterns on a lake's metabolic balance remains poorly investigated to date compared to whole-system estimates of metabolism. We employed a summed component ecosystem approach for assessing lake-wide and functional group-specific metabolism (gross primary production (GPP) and respiration (R)) in shallow and eutrophic Lake Võrtsjärv in central Estonia during three years. Eleven functional groups were considered: piscivorous and benthivorous fish; phyto-, bacterio-, proto- and metazooplankton; benthic macroinvertebrates, bacteria and ciliates; macrophytes and their associated epiphytes. Metabolism of these groups was assessed by allometric equations coupled with daily records of temperature and hydrology of the lake and measurements of food web functional groups biomass. Results revealed that heterotrophy dominated most of the year, with a short autotrophic period observed in late spring. Most of the metabolism of the lake could be attributed to planktonic functional groups, with phytoplankton contributing the highest share (90% of GPP and 43% of R). A surge of protozooplankton and bacterioplankton populations forming the microbial loop caused the shift from auto- to heterotrophy in midsummer. Conversely, the benthic functional groups had overall a very small contribution to lake metabolism. We validated our ecosystem approach by comparing the GPP and R with those calculated from O2 measurements in the lake. Our findings are also in line with earlier productivity studies made with 14C or chlorophyll a (chl-a) based equations. Ideally, the ecosystem approach should be combined with diel O2 approach for investigating critical periods of metabolism shifts caused by dynamics in food-web processes.
authors.affiliation: Estonian University of Life Sciences, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Fabien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cremona
authors.affiliation: Estonian University of Life Sciences, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Toomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kõiv
authors.affiliation: Estonian University of Life Sciences, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tartu, Estonia; University of Tartu, Faculty of Science and Technology, Institute of Technology, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Veljo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kisand
authors.affiliation: Estonian University of Life Sciences, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Alo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Laas
authors.affiliation: Estonian University of Life Sciences, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Priit
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zingel
authors.affiliation: Estonian University of Life Sciences, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Helen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Agasild
authors.affiliation: Estonian University of Life Sciences, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Tõnu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Feldmann
authors.affiliation: Estonian University of Life Sciences, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Ain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Järvalt
authors.affiliation: Estonian University of Life Sciences, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Peeter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nõges
authors.affiliation: Estonian University of Life Sciences, Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Tiina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nõges
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000378:metabolism; D000077194:Chlorophyll A; D017753:Ecosystem; D005399:Fishes / Q000382:microbiology*; D060106:Lakes / Q000382:microbiology; D010933:Plankton / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D002734:Chlorophyll; D000077194:Chlorophyll A