Ancient and methane-derived carbon subsidizes contemporary food webs

Amanda G. DelVecchia (), Jack A. Stanford and Xiaomei Xu
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Amanda G. DelVecchia: Flathead Lake Biological Station
Jack A. Stanford: Flathead Lake Biological Station
Xiaomei Xu: University of California Irvine, Earth System Science, 2222 Croul Hall

Nature Communications, 2016, vol. 7, issue 1, 1-9

Abstract: Abstract While most global productivity is driven by modern photosynthesis, river ecosystems are supplied by locally fixed and imported carbon that spans a range of ages. Alluvial aquifers of gravel-bedded river floodplains present a conundrum: despite no possibility for photosynthesis in groundwater and extreme paucity of labile organic carbon, they support diverse and abundant large-bodied consumers (stoneflies, Insecta: Plecoptera). Here we show that up to a majority of the biomass carbon composition of these top consumers in four floodplain aquifers of Montana and Washington is methane-derived. The methane carbon ranges in age from modern to up to >50,000 years old and is mostly derived from biogenic sources, although a thermogenic contribution could not be excluded. We document one of the most expansive ecosystems to contain site-wide macroinvertebrate biomass comprised of methane-derived carbon and thereby advance contemporary understanding of basal resources supporting riverine productivity.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/ncomms13163

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