Project Page Views: [ 706 ]
| Project Metadata Element | Details |
| Project Title | Resolving the Organic Carbon Budget of a salmonid humic lake |
| Research Area | EPA Climate Pillar: Climate change impacts and adaptation |
| Project Acronym | |
| Principal Investigator or Lead Irish Partner | Eleanor Jennings |
| Lead Institution or Organisation | Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) |
| Lead Country | Ireland |
| Latitude, Longitude (of Lead Institution) | 53.98353218858905,-6.39103889465332 |
| Lead Funding Entity | Marine Institute |
| Approximate Project Start Date | 21/10/2015 |
| Approximate Project Finishing Date | 30/10/2018 |
| Project Website (if any) | |
| Links to other Web-based resources | |
| Project Keywords | Soil carbon, peat catchments, humic, lake, freshwater, Lough Feeagh |
| Project Abstract | Peatlands contain extensive global stores of soil carbon (C). Water draining peat catchments are generally coloured due to high levels of dissolved organic carbon. The export of this allochthonous carbon can represent the main C source to downstream lakes and therefore fuel the lake foodweb, especially in systems that are oligotrophic. Human activities have greatly modified C exchange between the atmosphere, land and downstream freshwater bodies in recent decades, including in peatland catchments. This export of C can lead to further export of gaseous C to the atmosphere when it is decomposed in surface waters. Knowledge about the redistribution of any C added to the cycle is crucial, not only to understand global cycling, but mitigation and management strategies in affected catchments. This project will investigate the C cycle in a west of Ireland catchment, building on work that has already been undertaken between the principle applicant and the Marine Institute researchers in the Burrishoole catchment, Mayo. It will quantify both dissolved and particulate carbon export from the catchment to the Lough Feeagh, and from Lough Feeagh to downstream Lough Furnace, estimate carbon fluxes to the atmosphere, and track carbon fluxes through differing trophic levels. The results will contribute to an increased understanding of the role of catchment derived carbon in the foodweb of a humic lake, and have relevance for carbon budgets in humic systems. |