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Hindi Research Article
Phytoplankton Abundance Constrains Planktonic Energy Subsidy to Benthic Food Web
Peiyu Zhang1,2, Huijuan Tang3, Zhijun Gong4, Ping Xie1 and Jun Xu1*1Donghu Experimental Station of Lake Ecosystems, State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology of China, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, P. R. China
2Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, P. R. China
3College of Environment and Natural Resources, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, P.R. China
4Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Science, Nanjing 210008, P. R. China
- *Corresponding Author:
- Jun Xu
Donghu Experimental Station of Lake Ecosystems
State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology of China
Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wuhan 430072, P. R. China
Tel: +86-27-6878 0195
E-mail: xujun@ihb.ac.cn
Received date: August 15, 2013; Accepted date: October 25, 2013; Published date: November 01, 2013
Citation: Zhang P, Tang H, Gong Z, Xie P, Xu J (2013) Phytoplankton Abundance Constrains Planktonic Energy Subsidy to Benthic Food Web. J Ecosys Ecograph 4:139. doi:10.4172/2157-7625.1000139
Copyright: © 2013 Zhang P, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Linkages across habitats between habitats are fundamental components of ecological processes. As a major characteristic of within-lake food webs, linkage of benthic and planktonic food webs has received a great deal of attention in recent aquatic studies. However, planktonic energy subsidy to benthic consumers has been infrequently tested in experiment. In a field experiment manipulating nutrients and phytoplankton abundance, we ask how changes in phytoplankton abundance affect planktonic energy subsidy to benthic primary consumers across nutrient levels. Our results suggest that the planktonic subsidy to benthic primary consumers depends on the phytoplankton abundance. Furthermore, highly taxon-specific planktonic energy subsidy to benthic primary consumers suggests that the benthic community composition partially determines the degree of the planktonic-benthic linkage. Because shallow and eutrophic lakes distribute worldwide, and many ecological functions are mediated by planktonic-benthic linkage, it will be important to consider these findings to protection and restoration of lake ecosystems.
