Nitrogen Fixation and the Utilization of Other Inorganic Nitrogen Sources in a Subarctic Lake

Abstract

A year-round limnological study of the biological utilization of molecular nitrogen, ammonia, and nitrate in Smith Lake, a small subarctic lake in interior Alaska, showed that ammonia was consistently the most important nitrogen source. Of the two main algal production periods, the first took place under the ice in May, and depended on ammonia accumulated during the winter for a nitrogen source. The population at this time consisted largely of microflagellates. Chlamydomonas, Euglena, Chlorella, and Mellamonas were among the identified algae present. Immediately after the ice melted from the lake surface, a second population developed. These algae, consisting almost exclusively of Anabaena flos-aquae, used ammonia, nitrate, and molecular nitrogen simultaneously. During the remainder of the summer, uptake rates remained relatively low, with ammonia the most important nitrogen source; during the fall, nitrate uptake briefly approached the magnitude of ammonia uptake. 15N tracer methods were used to measure the uptake rates in this work.