Characterizing dissolved organic matter (DOM) composition remains a major unresolved problem in aquatic ecology. "Tryptophan-like" dissolved organic matter fluorescence (FDOM) was found to be a much better predictor of heterotrophic bacterial metabolism in 28 Quebec lakes than dissolved organic carbon (DOC), describing 52, 44, 51 and 55% of the variability in bacterial production (BP), bacterioplankton respiration (BR), total bacterial carbon consumption (TBCC), and total plankton community respiration (CR), respectively. In addition, the study provides indirect support for the view that FDOM represents a product of bacterial activity, rather than a bioavailable substrate. This is the first field study to show that fluorescence spectroscopy can be used to characterize an aspect of DOM composition that is related to bacterial metabolism, and provides results that encourage further exploration of the potential uses of DOM fluorescence spectroscopy as a predictive tool.

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