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Phosphorus (P) often limits the biomass of primary producers in freshwater lakes. However, in unproductive northern lakes, where anthropogenic nitrogen (N) deposition is low, N instead of P can limit primary producers. In addition, light can be limiting to primary producers at high concentrations of coloured dissolved organic matter (cDOM), as cDOM is the major determinant of light penetration in these lakes.

To address resource limitation of epilithic algal biomass, we repeatedly sampled epilithon (periphyton on stony substrata) in 20 lakes covering a large, correlated cDOM and N‐deposition gradient across boreal and subarctic Sweden. Across these lakes, pelagic total N (TN) and total P (TP) were positively correlated, and benthic light supply was negatively correlated, with cDOM. Microscopically determined algal biovolume and epilithic carbon (C), N and P were subsequently regressed against benthic light supply and pelagic TN and TP.

Patterns in epilithic biovolume were driven by N2‐fixing cyanobacteria, which accounted for 2%–90% of total epilithic biovolume. Averaged over the growing season, epilithic algal biovolume, C and N were negatively related to TP and positively to TN, and were highest in the clearest, most phosphorus‐poor lakes, where epilithon was heavily dominated by potentially N2‐fixing cyanobacteria.

A structural equation model supports the hypothesis that cDOM had two counteracting effects on total epilithic algal biovolume: a positive one by providing N to algae that depend on dissolved N for growth, and a negative one by shading N2‐fixing cyanobacteria, with the negative effect being somewhat stronger.

Together, these findings suggest that (1) light and N are the main resources limiting epilithic algal biomass in boreal to subarctic Swedish lakes, (2) epilithic cyanobacteria are more competitive in high‐light and low‐nitrogen environments, where their N2‐fixing ability allows them to reach high biomass, and (3) epilithic N increases with N2 fixer biomass and is—seemingly paradoxically—highest in the most oligotrophic lakes.

There is large natural variation in light and nutrient conditions across lakes. In the boreal-subarctic region most lakes are small, shallow and nutrient poor. In such lakes there is often sufficient light to support primary production at the lake bottom. An expectation for the future is that colored dissolved organic matter (cDOM) of terrestrial origin will increase in these lakes. cDOM depresses the underwater light climate but is often associated with elevated pelagic nutrient concentrations.

A dynamical model of a coupled benthic-pelagic food web was explored for how lake ecosystems might respond to altered light and nutrient regimes. The model predicts that mobile carnivores (fish) control grazers and release primary producers from grazing pressure. Primary producers are therefore limited by their resources and cross-habitat interactions are dominated by spatially asymmetric competition for light and nutrients. At high light and low nutrient supply benthic algae out-compete pelagic algae for nutrients diffusing from the sediment, whereas pelagic algae shade out benthic algae at lower light and/or higher nutrient supply. Biomass patterns of benthic and pelagic consumers follow the patterns of primary production. In contrast, habitat coupling through carnivore movement has only a weak impact on biomass patterns in the model food web.

Model predictions were compared with data from boreal-subarctic lakes covering a broad range of cDOM concentrations. In agreement with model expectations the following relationships with increasing light attenuation were observed: benthic primary and secondary production decreased, pelagic primary production showed a unimodal trend, and pelagic nutrient concentrations as well as the proportion of fish feeding in the pelagic habitat increased. As a consequence, both primary and fish production were negatively related to pelagic nutrient concentrations across lakes.

In a comparative study of boreal-subarctic lakes covering a broad range of cDOM concentrations, a similar negative relationship was found between pelagic total nutrient concentrations and the biomass of epilithic algae. This was surprising, because epilithon cannot access nutrients from the sediment. Patterns in epilithon biomass were largely driven by nitrogen fixing cyanobacteria, which in turn were positively related to light supply. The data suggest that nitrogen fixing autotrophs may have a competitive advantage over other epilithic primary producers in low-cDOM, low-nutrient, high-light environments, and that patterns in epilithic biomass, nutrient sequestration and elemental stoichiometry depend upon which functional group is dominant in the epilithic biofilm.

Terrestrial runoff into aquatic ecosystems may have both stimulatory and inhibitory effects, due to nutrient subsidies and increased light attenuation. To disentangle the effects of runoff on microbenthos, we added soil to coastal mesocosms and manipulated substrate depth. To test if fish interacted with runoff effects, we manipulated fish presence. Soil decreased microphytobenthic chlorophyll-a per area and per carbon (C) unit, increased microbenthic phosphorous (P), and reduced microbenthic nitrogen (N) content. Depth had a strong effect on the microbenthos, with shallow substrates exhibiting greater microbenthic net ecosystem production, gross primary production, and community respiration than deep substrates. Over time, micobenthic algae compensated for deeper substrate depth through increased chlorophyll-a synthesis, but despite algal shade compensation, the soil treatment still appeared to reduce the depth where microbenthos switched from net autotrophy to net heterotrophy. Fish interacted with soil in affecting microbenthic nutrient composition. Fish presence reduced microbenthic C/P ratios only in the no soil treatment, probably since soil nutrients masked the positive effects of fish excreta on microbenthos. Soil reduced microbenthic N/P ratios only in the absence of fish. Our study demonstrates the importance of light for the composition and productivity of microbenthos but finds little evidence for positive runoff subsidy effects.

1. High-latitude species (and populations within species) are adapted to short and cold summers. They often have high growth and development rates to fully use the short growing season and mature before the onset of winter. Within the context of ecological stoichiometry theory, this study combines ecology with evolution by relating latitudinal life-history adaptations to their molecular consequences in body nutrient composition in Rana temporaria tadpoles. Temperature and food quality were manipulated during the development of tadpoles from Arctic and Boreal origins. We determined tadpole growth rate, development rate, body size and nutrient content, to test whether (i) Arctic tadpoles could realize higher growth rates and development rates with the help of higher-quality food even when food quantity was unchanged, (ii) Arctic and Boreal tadpoles differed in their stoichiometric (and life history) response to temperature changes, (iii) higher growth rates lead to higher tadpole P content (growth rate hypothesis) and (iv) allometric scaling affects tadpole nutrient allocation. We found that especially Arctic tadpoles grew and developed faster with the help of higher-quality food and that tadpoles differed in their stoichiometric (and life history) response to temperature changes depending on region of origin (probably due to different temperature optima). There was no evidence that higher growth rates mediated the positive effect of temperature on tadpole P content. On the contrary, the covariate growth rate was negatively connected with tadpole P content (refuting the growth rate hypothesis). Lastly, tadpole P content was not related to body size, but tadpole C content was higher in larger tadpoles, probably due to increased fat storage. We conclude that temperature had a strong effect on tadpole life history, nutrient demand and stoichiometry and that this effect depended on the evolved life history.