Differential support of lake food webs by three types of terrestrial organic carbon

Organic carbon inputs from outside of ecosystem boundaries potentially subsidize recipient food webs. Four whole-lake additions of dissolved inorganic 13C were made to reveal the pathways of subsidies to lakes from terrestrial dissolved organic carbon (tDOC), terrestrial particulate organic carbon (t-POC) and terrestrial prey items. Terrestrial DOC, the largest input, was a major subsidy of pelagic bacterial respiration, but little of this bacterial C was passed up the food web. Zooplankton received 20% of their carbon. The results show that impacts of cross-ecosystem subsidies depend on characteristics of the imported material, the route of entry into the food web, the types of consumers present, and the productivity of the recipient system