Goose and hare faeces as a source of nutrients and dissolved organic matter for bacterial communities in the newly formed proglacial lake Ventisquero Negro (Patagonia, Argentina)

VEGA EVELYN NATHALIE; BASTIDAS NAVARRO MARCELA; MODENUTTI BEATRIZ

HYDROBIOLOGIA

SPRINGER

Año: 2020

0018-8158

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) input is akey factor for freshwater ecology, since it regulatesmany aspects of aquatic ecosystem metabolism.Aquatic and terrestrial animals that inhabit or frequentaquatic environments also influence the DOM inputsvia their faeces, supplying nutrients such as carbon(C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P). Here, weanalyse the response of a bacterial community in thenewly formed proglacial Lake Ventisquero Negro(Mount Tronador) to the addition of dissolved nutri-ents from faeces leachate of the native goose(Chloephaga poliocephala Sclater, 1857; locallycalled ??cauque ́n??) and the European hare (Lepuseuropaeus Pallas, 1778). A laboratory incubationexperiment was carried out with unenriched lakewater and lake water enriched with leachate from hareor goose faeces. The results showed that faeces andleachates of geese were richer in nutrients than thoseof hares. Spectrofluorometric analysis of the DOMalso showed differences between the two sources.Nutrient enrichment positively affected bacterial res-piration and short-term carbon consumption. Thus, thefaeces of these two animals may play an importantecological role by supplying allochthonous DOM andnutrients to this new ecosystem.