Ancient and methane-derived carbon subsidizes contemporary food webs
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Issue Date
2016-11-08
Authors
DelVecchia, Amanda
Stanford, Jack
Xu, Xiaomei
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Keywords
Carbon Cycle , Ecosystem Ecology , Freshwater Ecology , Stable Isotope Analysis
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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.
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Environmental Science / Studies
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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.
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Published article
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Nature Communications