Trophic Cascade in Lakes

Fluctuations in top predator populations in lakes can cascade through food webs to alter nutrient cycling, algal biomass and primary production. Trophic cascades may interact with nutrients and physical factors to explain most of the variance in lake ecosystem process rates. In this book, a multidisciplinary research team tests this idea by manipulating whole lakes experimentally, and coordinating this with paleolimnological studies, simulation modeling, and small-scale enclosure experiments. Consequences of predator-prey interactions, behavioral responses of fishes, diel vertical migration of zooplankton, plankton community change, primary production, nutrient cycling and microbial processes are described. Paleolimnological techniques enable the reconstruction of trophic interactions from past decades. Prospects for analysing the interaction of food web structure and nutrient input in lakes are explored. This book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in the fields of ecology, aquatic ecology, resource management and limnology.