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Integrating Reservoirs into the Dissolved Organic Matter Versus Primary Production Paradigm: How Does Chlorophyll-a Change Across Dissolved Organic Carbon Concentrations in Reservoirs?

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Abstract

Primary production in freshwater ecosystems is largely a function of light and nutrient availability, both of which have been changing in many lakes and reservoirs in response to anthropogenic pressures. Recent studies focusing on natural lakes have found a hump-shaped response of primary production (sometimes measured as chlorophyll-a) to dissolved organic matter (DOM, measured as dissolved organic carbon, DOC), which has both light-absorbing chromophoric properties and DOM-bound nutrients. We used the United States National Lakes Assessment dataset to integrate reservoirs into this paradigm in comparison with natural lakes and assessed the relative differences in the predicted response’s model structure, regression parameter values, and drivers of the chlorophyll-a residuals. We found that chlorophyll-a in reservoirs exhibited a hump-shaped response to DOC, while natural lakes from this dataset were better fit with a linear response, differing from previous studies focused on boreal lakes. Despite this, reservoirs had a greater maximum chlorophyll-a response compared to natural lakes in this study (45.5 versus 33.8 μg L−1), which occurred at a lower DOC concentration threshold (18.3 versus 26.4 mg L−1) when compared using quadratic models. Reservoirs had lower median light:nutrient values compared to natural lakes, and greater median surface area and total phosphorus (TP), that can all influence the light environment and the peak chlorophyll-a responses. In both reservoirs and natural lakes, chlorophyll-a residuals were most strongly influenced by TP, where TP < 25–30 µg L−1 suppressed chlorophyll-a residuals and higher TP amplified them. Light:nutrient values were somewhat important predictors, and patterns with chlorophyll-a residuals supported previous work showing low light:nutrient values amplified chlorophyll-a responses and higher values suppressed them. Quantifying the shape of the response of primary production to DOM quantity and quality as well as the drivers of the residuals, namely TP for lakes and reservoirs in this dataset, will be important for understanding the effects that changes in water quality may have on primary production and freshwater ecosystem processes.

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Data availability

All data used in this analysis are publicly available from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (https://www.epa.gov/national-aquatic-resource-surveys/data-national-aquatic-resource-surveys).

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Water Power Technologies Office. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, for the U.S. DOE under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725. The National Lakes Assessment 2007, 2012, and 2017 data were a result of the collective efforts of dedicated field crews, laboratory staff, data management and quality control staff, analysts and many others from EPA, states, tribes, federal agencies, universities, and other organizations. Please contact nars-hq@epa.gov with any questions. We thank P. Matson as well as the reviewers and editors of this manuscript for feedback that substantially improved it.

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  1. Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA

    Rachel M. Pilla & Natalie A. Griffiths

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  1. Rachel M. Pilla
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Correspondence to Rachel M. Pilla.

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Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

Authors Contribution: RMP conceived of the study and analyzed the data, with input and ideas from NAG. RMP wrote the paper, and NAG contributed comments, text, and editing on all drafts.

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Pilla, R.M., Griffiths, N.A. Integrating Reservoirs into the Dissolved Organic Matter Versus Primary Production Paradigm: How Does Chlorophyll-a Change Across Dissolved Organic Carbon Concentrations in Reservoirs?. Ecosystems 27, 137–150 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-023-00878-6

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