Effects of organic matter manipulation on bacterial community diversity and function

Lake ecosystems provide important services including their ability to support complex food webs, and their connection to the global carbon cycle. These services are dependent on how microorganisms interact with available organic matter (OM), both dissolved and particulate. Therefore, in order to manage these important ecosystems and their services successfully, it is necessary to understand how the quality and quantity of DOM affects microbial communities. Linking DOM quality and quantity to microbial community complexity and function are crucial steps toward a mechanistic understanding of freshwater ecosystems. Understanding these relationships at the microbial scale will enable us to make predictions about landscape-scale environmental change and its effect on aquatic carbon cycling and food web processes. In this study, I aim to investigate the effect of organic matter manipulation on the molecular structure of DOM and the microbial community composition and function in freshwater boreal lakes.