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LARVAL SALAMANDER GROWTH RESPONDS TO ENRICHMENT OF A NUTRIENT POOR HEADWATER STREAM
Citation:
JOHNSON, B. R., J. WALLACE, AND A. D. ROSEMOND. LARVAL SALAMANDER GROWTH RESPONDS TO ENRICHMENT OF A NUTRIENT POOR HEADWATER STREAM. HYDROBIOLOGIA. Springer, New York, NY, 573:227-232, (2006).
Impact/Purpose:
The goal of this research is to develop methods and indicators that are useful for evaluating the condition of aquatic communities, for assessing the restoration of aquatic communities in response to mitigation and best management practices, and for determining the exposure of aquatic communities to different classes of stressors (i.e., pesticides, sedimentation, habitat alteration).
Description:
While many studies have measured effects of nutrient enrichment on higher trophic levels in grazing food webs, few such studies exist for detritus-based systems. We measured effects of nitrogen and phosphorus addition on growth of larval Eruycea wilderae in a heterotrophic headwater stream using a repeated mark-recapture design. Growth estimates for 208 recaptured larvae (control stream n = 92; treatment stream n = 116) resulted in a growth rate of 0.0027 d-1 in each stream prior to enrichment, whereas during enrichment growth rates were significantly higher than in the control stream. Results indicate that E. wilderae growth is tightly linked to the detrital resource in these streams and that growth may be indirectly affected by both quantity and quality of detritus. This study provides some of the first evidence that nutrient enrichment of detritus-based systems can influence multiple trophic levels in ways similar to autotrophic systems.