Dr. Michael L. Pace
Assistant Director,
G. Evelyn Hutchinson Chair in Ecology,
Aquatic Ecologist
Ph.D., 1981, University of Georgia

Dr. Pace's research focuses on food webs and biogeochemical processes in aquatic ecosystems. He seeks to understand and predict properties of aquatic ecosystems from external watershed characteristics and from internal ecological interactions.

Current Research

What is the importance of terrestrial organic matter to aquatic food webs?
Using carbon-13 additions to entire lakes we are determining whether the carbon supporting consumers, including fish, arises from internal primary production or external inputs of terrestrial organic matter. You can learn more about this research in an IES press release, a Nature paper and a publication in Limnology and Oceanography. A list of publications and additional information is available at www.ecostudies.org/cascade.

Do nutrients associated with sewage inputs promote bacterial degradation of organic matter?
Bacterial growth and respiration is enhanced in the Albany region of the Hudson River, an area that also receives inputs from sewage treatment plants and combined sewer overflows. Treated sewage is rich in nitrogen and phosphorus. We are studying if these nutrients promote bacterial activity and facilitate the degradation of organic matter. You can learn more about this research by reading a project summary. A list of publications from this work and other Hudson River research is available at www.ecostudies.org/IES_hudson_river.html.

What controls the variation of dissolved organic matter in lake ecosystems?
Lakes receive inputs of dissolved organic matter from their surrounding watersheds. Heavy concentrations of this material give lakes a tea to coffee-like color. We are using data from hundreds of watersheds in the Adirondack Park to explore the relationships between lake color and the spatial patterns of wetlands and forests in the landscape. You can learn more about this research by reading a project summary, an essay entitled The Color of Water, as well as in a forthcoming paper in Ecological Applications (Canham et al. 2004).

Selected Publications

• Canham, C.D., M.L. Pace, M.J. Papaik, A.G.B. Primack, K.M. Roy, R.J. Maranger, R.P. Curran, and D.M. Spada. 2004. A spatially-explicit watershed-scale analysis of dissolved organic carbon in Adirondack lakes. Ecological Applications (in press).
• Pace, M.L., J.J. Cole, S.R. Carpenter, J.F. Kitchell, J.R. Hodgson, M. Van de Bogert, D.L. Bade, E.S. Kritzberg, and D. Bastviken. 2004. Whole lake carbon-13 additions reveal terrestrial support of aquatic food webs. Nature 427: 240-243.
• Pace, M.L. and J.J. Cole. 2002. Synchronous variation of dissolved organic carbon in lakes. Limnology and Oceanography 47: 333-342.
• Post, D.M., M.L. Pace, N.G. Hairston, Jr. 2000. Ecosystem size determines food-chain length in lakes. Nature 45: 1047-1049.
• Pace, M.L., and P.M. Groffman (eds.). 1998. Successes, limitations, and frontiers in ecosystem science. Springer-Verlag.