Although a number of studies have addressed the
importance of land use/type on surface water chemistry, few
studies have simultaneously focused on the importance of
local and regional factors as determinants of surface water
chemistry, and fewer still have addressed the similarities
and differences of lake and stream ecosystems. To our
knowledge, only one study (Essington and Carpenter 2000)
has simultaneously studied the response of stream and lake
ecosystems. These authors showed that streams and lakes
were surprisingly similar in nutrient cycling, in particular
when adjustments were made for water residence time. By
concurrently studying stream and lake ecosystems, we hope
to better our understanding of the processes and mechanisms
that drive surface water chemistry in these different, but
certainly not ecologically isolated ecosystems.