Low algal carbon content and its effect on the C : P stoichiometry of periphyton

1. We examined the contribution of algal cells to periphytic organic carbon and assessed the effects of variable biomass composition on the carbon : phosphorus (C : P) ratio of periphyton. We compiled more than 5000 published and unpublished observations of periphytic carbon : chlorophyll a (C : Chl) ratios, an index of algal prevalence, from a variety of substrata collected from lake and low‐salinity coastal habitats. In addition, we converted estimates of algal biovolume into algal C to obtain an independent measure of cellular algal carbon in periphyton. This information was used in a model relating periphyton C : P ratio to algal cellular carbon, the algal C : P ratio, and the C : P ratio of non‐algal organic matter in periphyton. 2. The mean C : Chl ratio of periphyton (405) was relatively high with values in >25% of the samples exceeding 500. On average, 8.4% of total periphyton C was accounted for by C in algal cells. Only 15% of samples were found to have more than 15% periphyton C in cellular algal carbon. Our model showed a nonlinear relationship between periphytic C : P ratios and the C : P ratio of algal cells in the periphyton when non‐algal organic matter was present. However, even at relatively low cellular algal C (<10% of total C), algal C : P ratios can strongly affect the C : P ratio of periphyton as a whole (i.e. algal cells plus other organic matter). 3. The high C : Chl ratios and the low biovolume‐derived algal C of periphyton samples in our data set indicate that algal cells are typically a minor component of organic carbon in periphyton, However, this minor contribution would not preclude algal cellular stoichiometry from notably influencing periphyton C : P ratios.     

Temperature and nutrient availability interact to mediate growth and body stoichiometry in a detritivorous stream insect

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Elemental stoichiometry of freshwater fishes in relation to phylogeny, allometry and ecology

Twenty species of freshwater fishes were collected from Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan and their whole-body carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus contents and the respective C:N:P ratios were determined. Patterns were examined in intra- and interspecific variation, allometry and variation caused by habitat and trophic level in whole fish while controlling for the role of phylogeny. Stoichiometric variation was greater across than within species, C:N:P allometry was species-specific, nutrient content within a species was somewhat habitat-specific and P concentration showed a strong phylogenetic signal. Stoichiometric relationships with allometry and feeding guild were observed but were not significant in an analysis accounting for non-independence of closely related species. Supportive evidence for the hypothesis that the considerable variation in whole fish phosphorus concentrations could be ascribed to differences in bone and scale development, as previously suggested, is shown. Whole fish Ca:P ratios had a nearly constant stoichiometry consistent with the chemical signature of bone. This result combined with a phylogenetic signal for fish P indicated that the great stoichiometric variability among fish taxa in P content was derived almost entirely from skeletal investment.     

Consumer-resource stoichiometry in detritus-based streams

Stoichiometric relationships between consumers and resources in detritus‐based ecosystems have received little attention, despite the importance of detritus in most food webs. We analysed carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and phosphorus (P) content of invertebrate consumers, and basal food resources in two forested headwater streams (one reference and the other nutrient‐enriched). We found large elemental imbalances between consumers and food resources compared with living plant‐based systems, particularly in regard to P content, which were reduced with enrichment. Enrichment significantly increased nutrient content of food resources (consistent with uptake of N and P by detritus‐associated microbes). P content of some invertebrates also increased in the enriched vs. reference stream, suggesting deviation from strict homeostasis. Nutrient content varied significantly among invertebrate functional feeding groups, orders and, to some extent, size classes. Future application of stoichiometric theory to detritus‐based systems should consider the potential for relatively large consumer‐resource elemental imbalances and P storage by insect consumers.     

Ecological restoration of aquatic and semi-aquatic ecosystems in the Netherlands: an introduction*

Hydrobiologia - In 1989, a symposium was held under the title `Netherlands-Wetlands', aiming at the presentation of the state of the art of the existing knowledge of structure and functioning...     

Consumer‐driven nutrient dynamics in freshwater ecosystems: from individuals to ecosystems

The role of animals in modulating nutrient cycling [hereafter, consumer‐driven nutrient dynamics (CND)] has been accepted as an important influence on both community structure and ecosystem function in aquatic systems. Yet there is great variability in the influence of CND across species and ecosystems, and the causes of this variation are not well understood. Here, we review and synthesize the mechanisms behind CND in fresh waters. We reviewed 131 articles on CND published between 1973 and 1 June 2015. The rate of new publications in CND has increased from 1.4 papers per year during 1973–2002 to 7.3 per year during 2003–2015. The majority of investigations are in North America with many concentrating on fish. More recent studies have focused on animal‐mediated nutrient excretion rates relative to nutrient demand and indirect impacts (e.g. decomposition). We identified several mechanisms that influence CND across levels of biological organization. Factors affecting the stoichiometric plasticity of consumers, including body size, feeding history and ontogeny, play an important role in determining the impact of individual consumers on nutrient dynamics and underlie the stoichiometry of CND across time and space. The abiotic characteristics of an ecosystem affect the net impact of consumers on ecosystem processes by influencing consumer metabolic processes (e.g. consumption and excretion/egestion rates), non‐CND supply of nutrients and ecosystem nutrient demand. Furthermore, the transformation and transport of elements by populations and communities of consumers also influences the flow of energy and nutrients across ecosystem boundaries. This review highlights that shifts in community composition or biomass of consumers and eco‐evolutionary underpinnings can have strong effects on the functional role of consumers in ecosystem processes, yet these are relatively unexplored aspects of CND. Future research should evaluate the value of using species traits and abiotic conditions to predict and understand the effects of consumers on ecosystem‐level nutrient dynamics across temporal and spatial scales. Moreover, new work in CND should strive to integrate knowledge from disparate fields of ecology and environmental science, such as physiology and ecosystem ecology, to develop a comprehensive and mechanistic understanding of the functional role of consumers. Comparative and experimental studies that develop testable hypotheses to challenge the current assumptions of CND, including consumer stoichiometric homeostasis, are needed to assess the significance of CND among species and across freshwater ecosystems.     

陆地生态系统植被氮磷化学计量研究进展

因化学功能的耦合和元素的不可替代性, 植物对N、P的需求和利用存在严格的比例。植物N、P化学计量在不同功能群、生长地区、生长季、器官之间以及环境梯度下存在明显的变化规律。多数研究从N、P浓度、N:P及N、P间异速指数等角度分析了植物化学计量变化规律, 并探讨其在全球范围内的具体数值。为增进对植物响应全球变化的理解, 该文综述了N、P化学计量的影响因素及其机理的最新研究进展, 并指出未来拟重点研究的方向。     

炼锌废渣-修复植物-凋落物体系的生态化学计量学研究

为揭示金属冶炼废渣堆场生态修复多年后,废渣-植物-凋落物系统中养分循环和系统维持机制。该研究以实现生态修复6 a的黔西北铅锌冶炼废渣堆场上土荆芥(Dysphania ambrosioides)、芦竹(Arundo donax)、刺槐(Robinia pseudoacacia)、构树(Broussonetia papyrifera)和柳杉(Cryptomeria fortunei)五种优势修复植物为对象,分析它们的主要营养器官(细根、粗根、茎/干、枝、叶片)、地表凋落物、植被下方表层废渣(0～10 cm)中碳(C)、氮(N)、磷(P)含量及化学计量特征,探讨它们之间的相互关系。结果表明:不同植物、不同营养器官间C、N、P的含量具有显著差异(P<0.05),C平均含量在两种草本植物中为茎>叶片>根>凋落物,在三种乔木中为干>枝>细根>粗根>叶片>凋落物; N和P的分布在草本植物中分别为叶片>凋落物>根>茎和叶片>根>凋落物>茎,在三种乔木中均为叶片>细根>凋落物>粗根>枝>...     

A method for separating benthic arthropods from detritus

Benthic arthropods were sorted from stream bed detritus (size range 300–1 000 µm) with a phase-separation technique using kerosene and 70–90% ethanol. 88.00% of the arthropods were retained at the interphase and this efficiency was significantly increased to 94.49% if the detritus was processed twice. This method shows high yields and low variability for non-crustacean arthropods and is potentially useful for standardizing the efficiency of sorting in projects where more than one sorter is employed.     

Beyond macronutrients: element variability and multielement stoichiometry in freshwater invertebrates

We contrasted concentrations of macronutrients (C, N and P), essential (As, Cu, Zn and Se) and non-essential metals (Pb, Hg and Cd) in invertebrates across five lakes and June to October in one lake. We predicted that somatic concentrations of tightly regulated elements would be less variable than weakly and unregulated elements. Within each taxon, variation was lowest in macronutrients, intermediate in essential micronutrients, and highest in non-essential metals, which corresponded in rank to homeostatic regulation strength for the same elements calculated from the literature. Hence, homeostatic regulation may strongly influence variation in element concentrations of biota in situ . Of the individual elements, only taxonomic differences in C and N were consistent across lakes and over a season. Nevertheless, canonical discriminant analyses successfully discriminated among taxa based on taxonomic multielement composition. Thus, relative taxonomic differences in multielement composition appear more informative than absolute stoichiometric formulae when considering the role of inherently variable trace elements in ecological investigations.     

Biological and ecological traits of benthic freshwater macroinvertebrates: relationships and definition of groups with similar traits

• 1 Relating species traits to habitat characteristics can provide important insights into the structure and functioning of stream communities. However, trade‐offs among species traits make it difficult to predict accurately the functional diversity of freshwater communities. Many authors have pointed to the value of working with groups of organisms as similar as possible in terms of relationships among traits and have called for definition of groups of organisms with similar suites of attributes.
• 2 We used multivariate analyses to examine separately the relationships among 11 biological traits and among 11 ecological traits of 472 benthic macroinvertebrate taxa (mainly genera). The main objective was to demonstrate (1) potential trade‐offs among traits; (2) the importance of the different traits to separate systematic units or functional groupings; and (3) uniform functional groups of taxa that should allow a more effective use of macroinvertebrate biological and ecological traits.
• 3 We defined eight groups and 15 subgroups according to a biological trait ordination which highlighted size (large to small), reproductive traits (K to r strategists), food (animal to plant material) and feeding habits (predator to scraper and/or deposit feeder) as ‘significant’ factors determining the ordination of taxa. This ordination partly preserved phylogenetic relationships among groups.
• 4 Seven ecological groups and 13 ecological subgroups included organisms with combinations of traits which should be successively more adequate in habitats from the main channel to temporary waters, and from the crenon to the potamic sections of rivers, and to systems situated outside the river floodplain. These gradients corresponded to a gradual shift from (1) rheophilic organisms that lived in the main channel of cold oligotrophic mountain streams to (2) animals that preferred eutrophic habitats of still or temporary waters in lowlands. The groups with similar ecological traits had a more diverse systematic structure than those with similar biological traits.
• 5 Monitoring and assessment tools for the management of water resources are generally more effective if they are based on a clear understanding of the mechanisms that lead to the presence or absence of species groups in the environment. We believe that groups with similar relationships among their species traits may be useful in developing tools that measure the functional diversity of communities.

     

黄土高原不同人工林叶片-凋落叶-土壤生态化学计量特征

为探究“退耕还林(牧)”工程对陕西省子午岭林区的影响,分析3种典型的人工林(刺槐林、油松林和侧柏林)叶片-凋落叶-土壤的C、N、P含量及其生态化学计量特征.结果表明: 3种人工林不同组分中C、N、P含量大小均为叶片>凋落叶>土壤,刺槐林叶片N、P含量显著高于油松林和侧柏林.刺槐林、油松林和侧柏林叶片N∶P分别为12.2、5.4和6.1,油松和侧柏较刺槐林存在N亏损,C∶N和C∶P大小均为凋落叶>叶片>土壤,N∶P为叶片>凋落叶>土壤.油松林叶片C∶N与凋落叶C∶N间存在显著正相关关系.刺槐叶片在生长周期内吸收利用的N和P存在比例关系,且其凋落叶在元素再吸收后N和P的残留量也存在比例关系.与油松和侧柏相比,刺槐是黄土高原南部森林带最适宜的造林树种.     

Comparative performance of benthic diatom indices used to assess river water quality

Grazer-periphyton interactions were investigated in 11 laboratory streams holding a range of densities of three herbivore taxa during a 32-d experiment. Effects of grazers on algae were strongest with Dicosmoecus gilvipes caddisflies, intermediate with Juga silicula snails, and weakest with Baetis spp. mayflies. Algal standing crop, export, and gross primary production declined logarithmically with increasing grazer density. Algal turnover rate, however, increased with grazer abundance. At high densities of all grazers, responses in most algal parameters converged, suggesting that high grazing pressure, regardless of taxon, will similarly affect periphyton. Growth of both Dicosmoecus caddisflies and Juga snails was density-dependent, with the highest growth rates occurring at the lowest densities. Caddisflies displayed high growth rates but low efficiency in resource use. Snails had lower growth rates but were more efficient in resource use. The coexistence of Dicosmoecus and Juga, or other competing herbivores, in natural streams may be related to these fundamental differences in life history strategies.Department of Fisheries and Wildlife     

Light and dissolved phosphorus interactively affect microbial metabolism,stoichiometry and decomposition of leaf litter

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Climate change and freshwater ecosystems: impacts across multiple levels of organization

Fresh waters are particularly vulnerable to climate change because (i) many species within these fragmented habitats have limited abilities to disperse as the environment changes; (ii) water temperature and availability are climate-dependent; and (iii) many systems are already exposed to numerous anthropogenic stressors. Most climate change studies to date have focused on individuals or species populations, rather than the higher levels of organization (i.e. communities, food webs, ecosystems). We propose that an understanding of the connections between these different levels, which are all ultimately based on individuals, can help to develop a more coherent theoretical framework based on metabolic scaling, foraging theory and ecological stoichiometry, to predict the ecological consequences of climate change. For instance, individual basal metabolic rate scales with body size (which also constrains food web structure and dynamics) and temperature (which determines many ecosystem processes and key aspects of foraging behaviour). In addition, increasing atmospheric CO₂ is predicted to alter molar CNP ratios of detrital inputs, which could lead to profound shifts in the stoichiometry of elemental fluxes between consumers and resources at the base of the food web. The different components of climate change (e.g. temperature, hydrology and atmospheric composition) not only affect multiple levels of biological organization, but they may also interact with the many other stressors to which fresh waters are exposed, and future research needs to address these potentially important synergies.     

永利煤矿复垦区植物叶片和枯落物生态化学计量学特征

为了明确煤矿复垦区植被恢复与重建以及不同物种的合理配置,以内蒙古永利露天煤矿复垦区不同植物群落叶片和枯落物为研究对象,通过对其碳(C)、氮(N)、磷(P)、钾(K)含量(质量含量)及生态化学计量学特征的研究,探讨煤矿复垦区植物养分状况及限制因子,同时研究叶片和枯落物之间的养分循环状况。结果表明:(1)不同植物类型叶片C含量变化较大,表现为乔木(侧柏537.96 g/kg)最大,草本(沙打旺423.73 g/kg)最小;N、P、K含量变化较小。枯落物中沙棘C含量(417.84 g/kg)显著高于沙打旺、柠条;N、P含量差异显著,氮含量表现为沙打旺(20.30 g/kg)最大,柠条最小,磷含量表现为沙打旺(1.57 g/kg)最大,沙棘最小;沙打旺K含量(6.31 g/kg)显著高于沙棘、柠条。叶片C、N、P、K含量高于枯落物。N、P、K的回收率分别为5.17%—50.16%、4.19%—6.41%、11.27%—23.24%,其中P回流率表现为沙打旺(6.41%)最大,柠条最小;K回流率表现为沙棘(23.24%)最大,柠条最小。(2)灌木、草本植物N/P16,乔木类N/P14,灌木类、草本类生长受制于P,乔木类生长受制于N。结合土壤C、N、P含量,建议在植被恢复初期种植豆科等先锋植物,随着土壤肥力的提高再逐步种植灌木、乔木。     

Effect of detritus supply on trophic relationships within experimental benthic food webs. II. Microbial responses,fate and composition of decomposing detritus

The dynamics of bacterial, protozoan and fungal populations were examined in a long-term (40–55 wk) microcosm experiment designed to assess the effects of detritus supply on meiofauna-polychaete (Capitella capitata (Type I) Fabricius) interactions. Bacterial and protozoan numbers and bacterial growth rates were inversely correlated with population fluctuations of the polychaete at low (50 mg N · m^?2 · day ^?1) detritus supply, but did not correlate with fluctuating polychaete densities at two higher (100 and 150 mg N · m^?2 · day^?1) ration levels of detritus. Bacterial and protozoan numbers and bacterial growth rates did not correlate with standing amounts of detritus or with fungi or meiofauna at any of the detritus rations. Fungi were associated primarily with aggregates of detritus particles and fecal pellets produced by C. capitata.Labile (fiber-free) organic matter did not correlate with microbes or meiofauna, but was inversely correlated with population fluctuations of the polychaete C. capitata at all three ration levels of detritus. Polychaete fecal pellets accounted for most of the refractory matter in the tanks with C. capitata and did not accumulate in the sediments, suggesting that fecal pellets were continually being produced, broken apart and decomposed.Our experiments suggest that contradictions in previous studies on the effects of macroconsumers on microbes, especially bacteria, can be explained as a failure to consider the effects of detritus supply on microbial growth rates.     

不同治理年限的离子型稀土矿区土壤生态化学计量特征

以福建省长汀县3个不同水土流失治理年限的离子型稀土矿区为研究对象,并以未开采的稀土矿治理地为对照,对其表层0—10cm和10—20cm土壤碳氮磷含量及生态化学计量特征进行分析,探讨稀土矿治理区的土壤养分恢复状况。结果表明:土壤有机碳、全氮、全磷含量的变化范围分别为0.69—15.7g/kg、0.26—1.21g/kg、0.05-0.11g/kg,0—10cm土壤养分含量高于10—20cm土壤。土壤C∶N、C∶P、N∶P比变化范围分别为0.89—15.42、9.50—136.46、4.17—20.87,随治理年限的增加呈先递减后递增的趋势。土壤生态化学计量特征在治理初期由于矿区氮素的残留,主要受有机碳缺乏的影响;治理后期随着氮素的流失,则主要受氮素限制的影响。研究认为,离子型稀土矿治理初期,要及时种植生存能力强的植物,以充分利用矿区残留的氮素;治理后期则要施加氮肥以克服氮素缺乏对植物生长的限制。