Just Accepted
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Assessing the aquatic metabolic balance response to future condition in a Mediterranean site: from an experimental design perspective
Abstract
Context: Metabolic balance determines whether an ecosystem acts as a source or sink of CO2 and considering that a substantial portion of inland aquatic ecosystems act as a source of CO2 to the atmosphere, it is important to highlight that there is still no agreement on how global change will affect the ecosystem metabolic balance response. It then becomes more important to study the interactions between global change drivers and aquatic metabolism. Aims: Assess possible shifts in ecosystem metabolic balance due to global change factors. Methods: Collapsed factorial designs and novel experimental units have been used to study responses to future conditions. Key results: In the study site, bacterial production was not affected by increased temperature alone, however, increased nutrient availability may unmask UV and/or CO2 as a source of stress to bacteria. A synergistic effect between temperature and the combined effect of nutrients and CO2 on primary producers was also found. Conclusions: In future scenarios some heterotrophic inland water ecosystems may shift from heterotrophic to autotrophic states and therefore act as CO2 sinks.
MF23137 Accepted 02 May 2024
© CSIRO 2024
