LTREB: Energy Flow and Climate Control: A Program for Continued Long-Term Research at Castle Lake, California

University Of California-Davis, Davis CA

Investigators

Abstract

00-75468 Goldman LTREB: Energy flow and climate control: A program for continued long-term research at Castle Lake, CA The Castle Lake long-term research program is one of the longest running programs of its kind in the world, with a continuous data set spanning more than 40 years since 1958. This study focuses on how energy in the form of carbon flows from primary producers (phytoplankton)to consumers (zooplankton) and eventually to fish, and on what determines the efficiency of energy flow in aquatic ecosystems in relation to year-to-year variability of climate forcing. In particular, the investigators will study which primary producers are nutritious to zooplankton and how year-to-year differences in climate affect the energy transfer processes in a lake ecosystem. These long-term studies will provide information useful to understanding how lake ecosystems might be altered by future climate change.