Soren Brothers
University of Potsdam
Department of Shallow Lakes and Lowland Rivers
Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Lakes and Inland Fisheries
Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V.
Müggelseedamm 301
12587 Berlin
Germany
+49 (030) 64 181 687
2010 – present : PhD in biology, University of Potsdam (Berlin, Germany)
2008-2010 : M.Sc. in biology, Université du Québec à Montréal (Montréal, Canada).
Supervisors : Yves Prairie, Paul del Giorgio
My primary research focus has been to distinguishing the significance of alternate metabolic pathways in lakes and reservoirs. My work at UQAM focused on the recently constructed Eastmain-1 Reservoir, located within northern Quebec’s boreal zone. This involved a complete reconstruction of the net respiration rates in the reservoir’s benthic and water column environments in order to explain measured surface carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into the atmosphere. We furthermore examined patterns in the variability between various flooded ecosystems (such as forest, peatlands, lakes), and carried out similar analyses of neighbouring natural lakes in order to compare the carbon emissions of this reservoir with the natural local variability. We discovered that the relative input of benthic respiration and water column respiration was similar between the examined lakes and reservoir, with the majority (over 70%) of emitted CO2 appearing to be sourced in the water column of each type of system. We also found a significant positive relationship between a landscape’s pre-inundation carbon stock and local benthic respiration rates, water column respiration rates, and surface CO2 emissions.
My doctoral research is part of the TERRALAC project, which compares two small lakes in northern Germany which are of similar dimensions, location, and nutrient level, but with one lake exhibiting phytoplankton dominance, and the other exhibiting macrophyte dominance. By measuring primary production in the benthic, pelagic, and littoral environments of each lake, the first aim of this study is to determine the impact of plant community structure on total primary production in a shallow lake. By joining data from this study with related projects carried out at the same two lakes, one final goal of this work will be to outline differences in the carbon cycling pathways associated with each type of plant-form dominance. This project will also include a paleolimnological analysis of each lake, in which recent historical shifts between macrophyte or phytoplankton dominance will be identified from a macrofossil analysis of sediment cores. Buried fish scales will then be analyzed from periods of alternating stable states in order to compare the relationship between shifting stable states and the assimilation of allochthonous carbon.