Phosphorus availability promotes bacterial DOC-mineralization, but not cumulative CO2-production

Abstract

The current trend of increasing input of terrestrially derived dissolved organic carbon (DOC) to boreal freshwater systems is causing increased levels of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) supersaturation and degassing. Phosphorus (P) is often the most limiting nutrient for bacterial growth and would thus be expected to increase overall mineralization rates and CO 2 production. However, high carbon (C) to P ratios of terrestrially derived DOC could also cause elevated cell-specific respiration of the excess C in heterotrophic bacteria. Using data from a survey of 75 Scandinavian lakes along an ecosystem gradient of DOC, we estimated in situ CO 2 production rates. These rates showed a unimodal response with DOC-specific CO 2 production negatively related to DOC:total phosphorus (TP) ratio, and a turning point at 5 mg C L −1 , indicating higher DOC turnover rates in productive than in unproductive lakes. To further assess the dependency of bacterial respiration (BR) on DOC and P, we monitored CO 2 production in incubations of water with a gradient of DOC crossed with two levels of inorganic P. Finally, we crossed DOC and P with a temperature gradient to test the temperature dependency of respiration rates [as oxygen (O 2 ) consumption]. While total CO 2 production seemed to be unaffected by P additions, respiration rates, and growth yields, as estimated by ribosomal gene copy numbers, suggest increased bacterial growth and decreased cell-specific respiration under non-limited P conditions. Respiration rates showed a sigmoid response to increasing DOC availability reaching a plateau at about 20 mg C L −1 of initial DOC concentrations. In addition to these P and DOC level effects, respiration rates responded in a non-monotonic fashion to temperature with an increase in respiration rates by a factor of 2.6 (±0.2) from 15 to 25°C and a decrease above 30°C. The combined results from the survey and experiments highlight DOC as the major determinant of CO 2 production in boreal lakes, with P and temperature as significant modulators of respiration kinetics.