Articles | Volume 17, issue 24
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-6327-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-17-6327-2020
Research article
 | 
15 Dec 2020
Research article |  | 15 Dec 2020

The relative importance of photodegradation and biodegradation of terrestrially derived dissolved organic carbon across four lakes of differing trophic status

Christopher M. Dempsey, Jennifer A. Brentrup, Sarah Magyan, Lesley B. Knoll, Hilary M. Swain, Evelyn E. Gaiser, Donald P. Morris, Michael T. Ganger, and Craig E. Williamson

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AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision
ED: Reconsider after major revisions (17 Jul 2020) by Anja Engel
AR by Christopher Dempsey on behalf of the Authors (20 Aug 2020)
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (30 Aug 2020) by Anja Engel
RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (21 Sep 2020)
ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (23 Sep 2020) by Anja Engel
AR by Christopher Dempsey on behalf of the Authors (04 Oct 2020)
ED: Publish as is (22 Oct 2020) by Anja Engel
AR by Christopher Dempsey on behalf of the Authors (30 Oct 2020)  Author's response   Manuscript 
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Short summary
We looked at how terrestrial dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from the watersheds of four different lakes responded to both biodegradation (i.e., microbes) and photodegradation (i.e., sunlight). The traditional paradigm is that biodegradation is more important than photodegradation. Our research shows that, on short timescales (i.e., 7 d), sunlight is more important than microbes in degrading DOC. Interestingly, the lakes had different responses to sunlight based on their trophic status.
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