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 thi...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-04-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58505-y |
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| author | Ossi Keva Matthew R. D. Cobain Antti P. Eloranta Heikki Hämäläinen Mikko Kiljunen Jos Schilder Roger I. Jones |
| author_facet | Ossi Keva Matthew R. D. Cobain Antti P. Eloranta Heikki Hämäläinen Mikko Kiljunen Jos Schilder Roger I. Jones |
| author_sort | Ossi Keva |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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 in the origin and nature of lake organic matter. Our results demonstrate how cross-ecosystem transfer of organic matter can influence community dynamics in recipient ecosystems, with anthropogenic management of donor terrestrial ecosystems affecting the structure and function of food webs in recipient aquatic ecosystems. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-83cd9a7294e54ce199b194c07a0b2f84 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-83cd9a7294e54ce199b194c07a0b2f842025-08-20T03:18:28ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-04-0116111210.1038/s41467-025-58505-yThe role of land use in terrestrial support of boreal lake food websOssi Keva0Matthew R. D. Cobain1Antti P. Eloranta2Heikki Hämäläinen3Mikko Kiljunen4Jos Schilder5Roger I. Jones6Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of JyväskyläDepartment of Biological and Environmental Science, University of JyväskyläDepartment of Biological and Environmental Science, University of JyväskyläDepartment of Biological and Environmental Science, University of JyväskyläDepartment of Biological and Environmental Science, University of JyväskyläDepartment of Biological and Environmental Science, University of JyväskyläDepartment of Biological and Environmental Science, University of JyväskyläAbstract 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 in the origin and nature of lake organic matter. Our results demonstrate how cross-ecosystem transfer of organic matter can influence community dynamics in recipient ecosystems, with anthropogenic management of donor terrestrial ecosystems affecting the structure and function of food webs in recipient aquatic ecosystems.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58505-y |
| spellingShingle | Ossi Keva Matthew R. D. Cobain Antti P. Eloranta Heikki Hämäläinen Mikko Kiljunen Jos Schilder Roger I. Jones The role of land use in terrestrial support of boreal lake food webs Nature Communications |
| title | The role of land use in terrestrial support of boreal lake food webs |
| title_full | The role of land use in terrestrial support of boreal lake food webs |
| title_fullStr | The role of land use in terrestrial support of boreal lake food webs |
| title_full_unstemmed | The role of land use in terrestrial support of boreal lake food webs |
| title_short | The role of land use in terrestrial support of boreal lake food webs |
| title_sort | role of land use in terrestrial support of boreal lake food webs |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-58505-y |
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