The emerging new field of groundwater ecology asserts that certain biota are characteristic residents of groundwater and that there are important couplings between groundwater and surface-water biota. One hyopthesis is that groundwater flow influenced benthic algal species composition in lakes. Here we propose to critically address important short-and long-term groundwater/biotic diversity interaction by Sparkling Lake Nevins Lake, MI and Williams Lake, MN. The research will assess how nutrients delivered by groundwater influence the species composition benthic diatoms at discharge and recharge sites, how dispersal of characteristic diatoms from that discharge contributes to within-lake diatom diversity,, and how the long-term consequences of groundwater coupling can be followed in sediment cores. The proposed investigations would expand and complement long-term studies at the three sites and surrounding regional studies.
