Aquatic insects are ubiquitous and abundant components of terrestrial communities that occur at the water-land interface.  Despite their small size, as aquatic insects move over land and die, they can at times represent a relatively large contribution to ecosystem C and N fluxes, affect food web interactions on land, and alter the composition of plant and animal communities.  Since 2005, we have been studying the annual emergences of chironomid (non-biting) midges from the subarctic lake Myvatn in northeastern Iceland to understand the ecosystem and food web effects on near-shore terrestrial ecosystems.

In addition to the awesome biology and ecology we can learn here, we think of ecosystem linkages between lakes and land as an example of ecosystem linkages more broadly – including those between diverse terrestrial habitats such as those we work on in Wisconsin.  Conservation of insect biological control agents and pollinators rely, at their core, on understanding ecosystem linkages. Here at Myvatn the system is simpler and the interactions and drivers of processes easier to identify.  This makes it an exciting and useful place to understand the ecological principles that are at play in linked systems.  

Here are some of our publications from our work on ecosystem linkages at the water-land interface in Iceland:

Dreyer, J., D. Hoekman, and C. Gratton. 2015. Positive indirect effect of aquatic insects on terrestrial prey is not offset by increased predator density. Ecological Entomology doi:10.1111/een.12272

Dreyer, J., P. A. Townsend, J. C. Hook III, D. Hoekman, M. J. Vander Zanden, and C. Gratton. 2015. Quantifying aquatic insect deposition from lake to land. Ecology 96:499–509.

Bartrons, M., C. Gratton, B. J. Spiesman, and M. J. Vander Zanden. 2015. Taking the trophic bypass: aquatic-terrestrial linkage reduces methylmercury in a terrestrial food web. Ecological Applications 25:151–159.

Bultman, H., D. Hoekman, J. D. Dreyer, and C. Gratton. 2014.  Terrestrial deposition of aquatic insects increases plant quality for insect herbivores and herbivore density. Ecological Entomology 39:419-426.

Dreyer, J. and C. Gratton. 2014. Habitat linkages in conservation biological control: lessons from the land-water interface. Biological Control 75: 68-76

Hoekman, D., M. Bartrons, and C. Gratton. 2012. Ecosystem linkages revealed by experimental lake-derived isotope signal in heathland food webs. Oecologia 170:735–743. doi: 10.1007/s00442-012-2329-5.

Hoekman, D., J. Dreyer, R. Jackson, P. Townsend, and C. Gratton. 2011. Lake to land subsidies: experimental addition of aquatic insects increases terrestrial arthropod densities. Ecology 92:2063-2072. doi: 10.1890/11-0160.1.

Vander Zanden, M. J., and C. Gratton. 2011. Blowin’ in the wind: Reciprocal airborne carbon fluxes between lakes and land. Canadian Journal of Fisheries & Aquatic Sciences 68:170-182. doi: 10.1139/F10-157.

Gratton, C., and M. J. Vander Zanden. 2009. Flux of aquatic insect productivity to land: comparison of lentic and lotic ecosystems. Ecology 90:2689-2699. doi: 10.1890/08-1546.1.

Gratton, C., J. Donaldson, and M. J. Vander Zanden. 2008. Ecosystem linkages between lakes and the surrounding terrestrial landscape in northeast Iceland. Ecosystems 11:764-774. doi: 10.1007/s10021-008-9158-8.

Lab blog and news for ecosystem linkages…

Iceland Work Featured by UMD Entomology!

Gratton lab work in Iceland on annual midge emergence and land-lake linkages was the topic of a recent University of Maryland blog post. Thanks to the Department of Entomology at UMD for this great feature! http://entomology.umd.edu/news/iceland-the-land-of-fire-and-ice-and-midges-oh-my ...
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May 9, 2017 / hemberger

Talking Science: 2017 conferences thus far

The Gratton lab has been busy these past couple of months presenting research at regional and national meetings.  Here are examples of our 2017 research presentations ranging from bee behavioral responses in apple orchards to nitrogen effects on freshwater algal ...
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March 9, 2017 / althe3rd

Dr. Claudio Gratton Receives Vilas Associate Award

Doctor Claudio Gratton received this year's Vilas Associate Award from the Univeristy of Wisconsin-Madison. This is a highly competitive award that grants funding to university professors for specific projects. Claudio's winning project proposal, titled "Do exotic plant-insect mutualisms affect native bumble bees? ...
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February 1, 2017 / althe3rd

Welcome to our newest lab member, Matt!

The Gratton lab welcomes its newest lab member, Matt McCary!  Matt joins us from the Wise lab at the University of Illinois in Chicago where he recently completed his PhD .  Matt will be working with Claudio, Randy Jackson, and ...
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January 17, 2017 / althe3rd

Welcome new PhD student, Amanda McCormick!

Amanda joined the Gratton lab (co-advised by Tony Ives) in September and will be working on a project trying to understand what causes the impressive population cycles of midges in Lake Myvatn, Iceland.  Here is more about Amanda who recently completed her ...
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February 16, 2016 / althe3rd

2015 Field Season Preview

As summer approaches, here's a preview of the our fieldwork projects... Pollinators in bioenergy landscapes: This project is trying to understand the impact pollinator conservation strips around switchgrass plantings have on native pollinator communities. Fieldwork will be conducted at study sites ...
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March 19, 2015 / althe3rd

Using isotopes to track nutrients

Intrepid post-doc alum David Hoekman, who is now a staff scientist at NEON Inc., the NSF-funded center for continental scale ecology and monitoring recently wrote this piece for their blog on his research in Iceland.  Thanks David for the great ...
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May 3, 2013 / althe3rd

Bring it On! Fall 2012

With the Autumnal Equinox just around the corner (Saturday the 22nd in fact...) we find the Fall semester here at UW-Madison well under way.  The Gratton Lab has is saying "Farewell!" to our postdocs David, who has already left for ...
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September 20, 2012 / althe3rd

PhD position available

Interested in graduate school?  Want to work at an exotic, remote field site near the arctic circle? Interested in the linkages between lakes and land. Then read on! PhD Research Assistantship in Terrestrial Food Web Ecology University of Wisconsin - ...
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July 13, 2012 / althe3rd

How did the Iceland project get started?

This is probably one of the most frequent questions I get when I tell people about the work we do here in Iceland. How does someone who has worked mainly in temperate areas, mostly in agricultural systems and salt marshes, ...
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May 26, 2012 / althe3rd

Undergraduate Poster Session

Yesterday the annual Biology 152 poster session took place in Union South, and three of the more than three hundred and sixty posters in Varsity Hall came from the Gratton Lab.  Heidi, Rachel, and I have been mentoring undergraduates through ...
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May 9, 2012 / althe3rd

Midges connect aquatic and terrestrial food webs

Insects live in virtually every freshwater habitat and can be extremely abundant, composing a large part of the animal biomass in lakes and rivers. Aquatic insects have important roles in food webs, acting as decomposers and consumers of aquatic plants ...
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May 2, 2012 / althe3rd