PELAGIC ENERGY MOBILIZATION PATHWAYS

Carolyn Faithfull, Ann-Kristin Bergstrm, Tobias Vrede

carolyn.faithfull@emg.umu.se ann-kristin.bergstrom@emg.umu.se tobias.vrede@emg.umu.se
Ume University, Sweden

Summary

Hypothesis 1:

The heterotrophic share of the pelagic energy mobilization

(%PEMhet) decreased with increasing phosphorus concentration,
and remained higher in treatments with high carbon
concentrations.
We found no relationship between pelagic nutrient use efficiency
(PEM/P) and %PEMhet. Consequently factors other than the
differing P: C stoichiometry between bacteria and phytoplankton
may play a role in energy mobilization.

Autotrophic vs Heterotrophic Energy Mobilization

%PEMhet, will increase with increasing AOC and be negatively

related to increasing concentrations of inorganic P.

Phosphorus

%PEMhet decreased with increasing P and was higher at high

carbon (C) concentrations.

Phytoplankton

Bacteria can outcompete phytoplankton for P when P is low,

however when P is high phytoplankton are capable of much
higher production.
Because we used a natural C source in this experiment bacteria
can become C limited at high P concentrations, as the C is not
readily bioavailable.

Both autotrophic (phytoplankton) and heterotrophic

(bacterioplankton) production form the basis of pelagic energy
mobilization (PEM) in lakes.
The relative importance of these two energy mobilization
pathways may change with respect to phosphorus (P) and
allochthonous organic carbon (AOC) availability.

PEMhet decreases with P

Heterotrophic

Experimental Set-up
We used 9 chemostats with 3 levels of AOC (3, 12, 19 mg
and 3 levels of P (0, 0.1, 0.2 g L-1 ) crossed in a full factorial
design, without replication.

100

80

80

60

60

40

40

20

20

L-1),

The chemostats were run for 28 days, at a constant photon flux of

25 mol quanta m-2 s-1 (16:8 day:night cycle), by which time a
steady state was reached.

Autotrophic

100

%PEMhet

Autochthonous
inorganic
carbon

0
20 0

Bacteria

5
10
15
Phosphorus (g L-1)

On day 28 we measured bacterial (BP) and phytoplankton

production (PP), nutrients and DOC (as a proxy for AOC).

-1
33 mg
L-1
mg C L
-1
12 mg C L
12
L-1
-1
19 mg C L
19
L-1

5
10
15
Phosphorus (g L-1)

Hypothesis 2:
Nutrient use efficiency (PEM/P) will decrease as heterotrophy
increases.

Calculating Pelagic Energy Mobilization

Our data

PEM = PP + BPAOC
BPAOC = BP PPb x BGE

PPb = the fraction of primary production available to bacteria

% PEMhet = BPAOC / PEM 100
% PEMaut = PP / PEM 100

References
del Giorgio, P. A. & J. J. Cole. 1998. Bacterial growth efficiency in natural aquatic systems.
Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 29: 503-541.
Jansson, M., J. Karlsson & P. Blomqvist. 2003. Allochthonous organic carbon decreases
pelagic energy mobilization in lakes. Limnol. Oceanogr. 48: 17111716.
Karlsson, J., M. Jansson & A. Jonsson. 2002. Similar relationships between pelagic primary
and bacterial production in clearwater and humic lakes. Ecology. 83: 29022910.

100

Allochthonous
organic carbon

PEM/P (C P-1 d-1)

BGE = Bacterial growth efficiency 13-26% (del Giorgio & Cole,

1998).

Jansson et al. 2003

Outlier?

120

80
60
40
20
0
0

20

40
60
PEMhet (%)

80

100

We did not observe a negative relationship between PEM/P and

%PEMhet, even when we excluded both data points where TP and
DOC concentrations were outside Jansson et al.s (2003) data
range.
This suggests that factors other than the differing P: C
stoichiometry between bacteria and phytoplankton may play an
important role in energy mobilization.

20