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Influence of soil temperature and moisture on the dissolved carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in organic matter entering lake ecosystems

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Abstract

Concentrations of terrestrially derived dissolved organic matter (DOM) have been increasing in many north temperate and boreal lakes for over two decades. The concentration of DOM in lakes is influenced by a number of environmental factors, but there is still considerable debate about how the availability of terrestrial DOM, and associated dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus, may be affected by drivers of climatic change. Using experimental and observational methods, we considered how changes in soil temperature and moisture affected the composition of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus entering freshwater lakes. In our experiment, organic soil cores were collected from the wetland shoreline of a darkly-stained seepage lake in northern Wisconsin, USA and manipulated in laboratory with temperature and moisture treatments. During the 28-day study, soil leachate was sampled and analyzed for optical properties of DOM via UV/Vis absorbance, as well as concentrations of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total dissolved nitrogen, and total dissolved phosphorus (TDP). DOM optical properties were particularly sensitive to moisture, with drier scenarios resulting in DOM of lower molecular weight and aromaticity. Warmer temperatures led to lower DOC and TDP concentrations. To consider long-term relationships between climate and lake chemical properties, we analyzed long-term water chemistry data from two additional Wisconsin lakes from the long term ecological research (LTER) project in a cross correlation analysis with Palmer drought severity index data. Analysis of the LTER data supported our experimental results that soil moisture has a significant effect on the quality of DOM entering lakes and that climate may significantly affect lake chemical properties. Although unexpected in terms of DOM loading for climate change scenarios, these results are consistent with patterns of decomposition in organic soils and may be attributed to an increase in soil DOM processing.

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Acknowledgements

The research was funded by the NSF and the Northern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service in collaboration with the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest Service and the North Temperate Lakes Long-Term Ecological Research program (NSF-DEB-1440297). We thank the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest and the University of Wisconsin—Trout Lake Station for logistical support, as well as Colin Smith, Patrick Dowd, Dale Higgins, Jim Mineau, Sara Sommers, Sue Reinecke, John Larson, Nate Aspelin, and Elizabeth Runde for assisting with field sampling and laboratory analyses. Additionally, we thank Trent Wickman for his contribution to the research design and John Battles and Stuart Jones for valuable comments that greatly improved this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA

    Brittni L. Bertolet

  2. University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Brittni L. Bertolet

  3. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Jessica R. Corman & Emily H. Stanley

  4. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA

    Jessica R. Corman

  5. University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    Nora J. Casson

  6. USDA Forest Service, Grand Rapids, MI, USA

    Stephen D. Sebestyen & Randy K. Kolka

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  1. Brittni L. Bertolet
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Correspondence to Brittni L. Bertolet.

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Responsible Editor: Christine Hawkes.

This manuscript has been co-authored by Federal employees and the research was funded by the USDA Forest Service. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes.

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Bertolet, B.L., Corman, J.R., Casson, N.J. et al. Influence of soil temperature and moisture on the dissolved carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus in organic matter entering lake ecosystems. Biogeochemistry 139, 293–305 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-018-0469-3

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