Ancient and methane-derived carbon subsidizes contemporary food webs
Persistent URL
Author(s)
DelVecchia, Amanda
Stanford, Jack
Xu, Xiaomei
Date Issued
November 8, 2016
Abstract
While most global productivity is driven by modern photosynthesis, river ecosystems are supplied by locally fixed and imported carbon that spans a range of ages. Alluvial aquifers of gravel-bedded river floodplains present a conundrum: despite no possibility for photosynthesis in groundwater and extreme paucity of labile organic carbon, they support diverse and abundant large-bodied consumers (stoneflies, Insecta: Plecoptera). Here we show that up to a majority of the biomass carbon composition of these top consumers in four floodplain aquifers of Montana and Washington is methane-derived. The methane carbon ranges in age from modern to up to >50,000 years old and is mostly derived from biogenic sources, although a thermogenic contribution could not be excluded. We document one of the most expansive ecosystems to contain site-wide macroinvertebrate biomass comprised of methane-derived carbon and thereby advance contemporary understanding of basal resources supporting riverine productivity.
Description
A.G.D. and J.A.S. designed the study and conducted data collection, data analysis and writing. X.X. contributed to sample analysis and writing.
Journal
Nature Communications
Department
Environmental Science / Studies
Citation
DelVecchia, A. G., Stanford, J.A., and Xu, X. (2016). Ancient and methane-derived carbon subsidizes contemporary food webs. Nature Communication. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13163.
Publisher
Nature Communications
Version of Article
Published article
DOI
10.1038/ncomms13163
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DelVecchia_2016-11-08_naturecom.pdf
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Format
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