Cicle de conferències 2014-2015. Lecture. Who eats all the leaves that fall into lakes?

Abstract

Lakes in forested landscapes may receive great amounts of leaves during autumnal litterfall. However, almost nothing is known on the fate of the carbon and energy from these leaves in lakes. We studied by whole-lake experiments whether terrestrial carbon can be traced in aquatic food webs, and how much of the external energy supply is actually used in lake metabolism. Our results show strong interconnectivity of lakes and their terrestrial environment.