Benthic Pelagic

Group moderators:
Erik Jeppesen
Yvonne Vadeboncoeur 

Summary: The benthic pelagic working group met at GLEON 6 in Florida. Their scientific questions include: How will integration of littoral zone increase our understanding of lake ecosystems? How does lake size and shape affect the strength and direction of links between littoral and pelagic habitats? Can we predict the strength/frequency of littoral-pelagic nutrient links based on physical sratification and mixing? How will regional-scale changes in fluxes of DOC differentially affect littoral and pelagic productivity and decomposition as a function of changes in water clarity? How does the strength and direction of benthic-pelagic coupling change with the alternating stable states in shallow lakes?Does the strength of benthic-pelagic coupling change predictably with latitude based on changes in food web structure? Can persistent among-lake variation in deep hole sonde signal be attributed to benthic signal? Can lakes be categorized based on the biotic (macrophyte, microphytobenthos, woody debris) or physical (edaphic) structure of littoral habitats?

Supporting documents:
GLEON 6 (PPT)