Planktonic nutrient regeneration and cycling efficiency in temperate lakes

Planktonic nutrient regeneration is a fundamental process that maintains most of the primary productivity in marine and freshwater environments. However, there is no robust predictive model to describe the pattern and efficiency of nutrient cycling across aquatic systems. Based on rather weak eviden...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 1999-08, Vol.400 (6745), p.659-661
Main Authors: Hudson, Jeff J, Taylor, William D, Schindler, David W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
Biological and medical sciences
Biology
Fresh water ecosystems
Freshwater
Freshwater environments
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humanities and Social Sciences
Lakes
letter
multidisciplinary
Nutrient cycles
Nutrition
Plankton
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Synecology
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Summary:Planktonic nutrient regeneration is a fundamental process that maintains most of the primary productivity in marine and freshwater environments. However, there is no robust predictive model to describe the pattern and efficiency of nutrient cycling across aquatic systems. Based on rather weak evidence, the efficiency of nutrient regeneration is believed to decline along a gradient of productivity, so that nutrient-poor environments are assumed to be more efficient at cycling their nutrients than are nutrient-rich environments. Here we measure phosphorus regeneration directly and show that cycling efficiency does not vary with phosphorus concentration. In addition, we confirm that the phosphorus supply for lake plankton comes primarily from within the plankton community, rather than from external loading or from larger organisms such as fish.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/23240