Date
Spring 2019
Document Type
Poster Session
Department
Environmental Science
Advisor
Karen Wilson PhD
Keywords
insect colonization, macroinvertebrates, community structure, nutrient cycling
Abstract
We investigated preferential insect colonization of natural versus artificial leaves in forested streams to determine the impact of invertebrate-substrate associations on macroinvertebrate community composition and ecosystem nutrient cycling. We created 10 onion bags filled with natural maple leaves and 10 filled with artificial maple leaves, and placed 5 of each in two forested streams, one larger and one smaller, in the Sebago Lake Land Reserve in Standish, Maine. We identified the aquatic macroinvertebrates found on these samples after approximately one month to order-level and used Maine DEP biomonitoring data and functional feeding group taxonomies to classify macroinvertebrates by functional feeding groups. There was a greater difference in Simpson diversity values between habitats than between substrate types and a substantially greater difference in functional feeding group composition between habitats than between substrate types. The patterns in functional feeding group abundance across habitats (specifically the decline in shredder proportions from the smaller stream to the larger stream) match the patterns of the river continuum concept. This indicates an unexpectedly high degree of small-scale ecosystem heterogeneity, with wide potential implications for ecosystem-level macroinvertebrate community structure and nutrient cycling.
Start Date
4-19-2019 10:30 AM
Recommended Citation
Matey, Sam H. and Freytag Wistar, Kala, "Functional Feeding Groups of Aquatic Macroinvertebrates on Natural and Artificial Leaves in Forested Stream Habitats in the Sebago Lake Land Reserve" (2019). Thinking Matters Symposium Archive. 191.
https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/thinking_matters/191
