Primary Production
What organisms do the primary production in streams? (taxonomies)
Algae, bacteria/cyanobacteria, protists, macrophytes
Give an example of an adaptation that macroinvertebrates in streams developed for respiration.
Gills (ex. Lunged snails and gilled snails)
What is the lowest level of a trophic system?
Primary Producers
Light and Dark bottle; What's in the bottle?
Primary producers (algae) and bacterial biofilm
List three human activities that affect stream ecosystem dynamics:
Agriculture, development, migration, economic systems, waste disposal, et. cetera
What are some controls on aquatic primary production?
light, nutrients, flow disturbance, grazing
Name three adaptations for macroinvertebrates in flowing water
Attach to something stationary, Be hydrodynamic, Make yourself heavier
Give an example of an aquatic-terrestrial linkage.
Channel water provides riparian vegetation with water
Cyanobacteria fix nitrogen which could be taken up by plants
Aquatic prey feeds terrestrial animals/predators
Light and Dark bottle; What's the purpose of the dark bottle?
Imitate ecosystem respiration without the presence of light
The Process Domain Concept describes how _______ impacts streams
Geomorphology and Disturbances (also correct: topography, geology, and climate)
T/F: The diversity in feeding function generally maps well onto taxonomic diversity
FALSE
What are IBI’s
Indices of Biological Integrity:
-a tool used to identify and classify water pollution problems which numerically depicts associations between human influence and biological attributes.
Name 2 ways salmon runs impact their environments.
Bring biomass upstream that feeds top predators
Top predators work to disperse waste (fertilizer) across the watershed, further than the stream could carry it
Improved plant growth near streams with salmon because of this fertilizing effect
Name two physical characteristics affecting reaeration.
flow rate, wind, objects in water
What are two things that may change respiration that are not accounted for in the light/dark bottle method (and apply to observations of the stream as a whole)?
Respiration of larger animals, reaeration of stream, GPP of macrophytes, and more
This group of algae use silica to build frustules, have remarkable biodiversity, and have a variety of practical applications.
Diatoms
How do we choose what metrics to include when considering IBIs?
Discrimination efficiency, redundancy, and consistency
Discuss the intermediate disturbance hypothesis and its influence on competition.
States that the highest diversity occurs in environments with intermediate levels of natural disturbance. It also interprets the concept of diversity as a function of succession
Disturbance helps regulate competitive exclusion by lowering both populations.
What is the simplest piece of a system?
Element
The Flood Pulse Concept describes how lateral conditions, rather than longitudinal conditions, give biota what they need. In this article, what is described as the area of high productivity?
Flood plain (the bridge between aquatic and terrestrial environments)
Name two groups of macrophytes and two groups of algae
algae: Bacillariophyta, chlorophyta
Macrophytes: Bryophytes, charophytes, vascular plants
How does population persist in headwaters after drifting occurs?
Adults prefer to lay eggs upstream from the rest of the population, meaning when those eggs hatch, the population will be sustained in that area
Define a trophic cascade and compare top-down and bottom-up control.
Trophic cascades involve the removal of a key organism in a food web, whose removal has widespread impact on the ecosystem
Top-down control is predator control over prey populations
Bottom-up control is the limitation primary production by abiotic factors (nutrients/ light)
What are the six pieces of a system?
element, relationship, boundary, input, output, environment
According to Vannote et al., the River Continuum Concept depicts the shift of freshwater systems to occur _____, rather than _____ (like with plant succession).
Over space, over time