When the plant structure in the Freshwater Lake changed, the effects didn't stay in the lake. Because the biomes share air, water, and nutrients, a shift in one habitat shows up in the others. This longform entry tracks how a transition from macroalgae dominance toward tapegrass establishment changed the lake's nutrient cycling, and what that meant for connected biomes. The ghost shrimp in the seagrass meadow, thriving for over two years, became the reference point for whether the lake could finally support the same species under sealed conditions.
