HR: 1330h
AN: NB33L-10    [Abstracts]
TI: Separating Autotrophic and Heterotrophic Respiration in Streams and the Importance for Carbon Cycling: a Preliminary Study
AU: * Bozeman, M
EM: maura.bozeman@yale.edu
AF: Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 21 Sachem St., New Haven, CT 06511 United States
AU: Raymond, P
EM: peter.raymond@yale.edu
AF: Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, 21 Sachem St., New Haven, CT 06511 United States
AB: Autotrophic and heterotrophic organisms confer different effects on nutrient cycling, especially on carbon (C). In stream ecosystems, net ecosystem production determines the amount and form of C exported; however any transformation due to different respiratory (R) mechanisms are not separated. These mechanisms highly influence the form and lability of the C transported. To understand the current state of knowledge and estimate the importance of autotrophic versus heterotrophic R, we obtained a range of respiratory rates from the literature and modeled effects of different balances of rates on bulk dissolved inorganic and organic C chemistry. Preliminary results show that a wide range of estimates of autotrophic R exist and that these can effect bulk properties of exported C. While specific effects are highly dependent upon physical structure of the study watershed, we offer that separating R mechanisms provides further insight into ecosystem C cycling. We also propose a method to measure autotrophic and heterotrophic R at the ecosystem scale and obtain watershed-level estimates of the importance of these processes on C cycling.
DE: 9810 New fields (not classifiable under other headings)
SC: North American Benthological Society [NB]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly