Aquatic Hyphomycete Communities Associated with Decomposing Alder Leaf Litter in Reference Headwater Streams of the Basque Country (northern Spain)

Pérez, Javier Jiménez; Descals, Enrique; Pozo, Jesús

doi:10.1007/s00248-012-0022-1

Cited by 36 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…In our study, colonization of leaf bags in spring was higher than in winter. According to previous field studies, the microbial community responds to eucalypt plantations (Bärlocher and Graça, 2002) and this response is related to leaf litter quality (Pérez et al, 2012). This higher colonization was related to a significantly higher breakdown of leaf litter in spring.…”

Section: Chemistry Of Leavesmentioning

confidence: 75%

Effects of exotic eucalypt plantations on organic matter processing in Iberian streams

Larrañaga¹,

Larrañaga

Basaguren

et al. 2014

Internat. Rev. Hydrobiol.

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Eucalypt leaves are an organic matter source of poor quality, and therefore, extensive eucalypt plantations can affect stream ecology. Nevertheless, it is difficult to discern the effects of altered inputs from other impacts of plantations, such as increased erosion from periodic clearcuttings. To assess the effects of eucalypt inputs on organic matter decomposition in streams, we manipulated litter inputs in two headwater streams in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Three contiguous 50‐m long reaches were selected per stream: the upstream reference reach was left unaltered, while the others were covered and separated by mesh to prevent inputs from the surrounding vegetation, and via downstream transport. Regularly, we provided the covered sites with either native deciduous (middle reach) or eucalypt (lower reach) leaf litter, mimicking the amount and seasonality of inputs from the respective forest types. Two decomposition experiments with alder and eucalypt leaves were performed half a year and 1 year after the beginning of the exclusion of natural inputs. Decomposition for both species was lower in sites receiving eucalypt leaf litter, corresponding with the lower density of shredders in these sites. Moreover, higher alder:eucalypt macroinvertebrate density and biomass ratios in sites receiving eucalypt inputs suggest that invertebrates concentrated on the higher quality alder leaves in those sites. Our study shows that eucalypt inputs can impair stream ecosystem processes in a short time span and suggests that maintaining native leaf litter inputs into streams by intact riparian corridors could help to mitigate the effect of eucalypt plantations on streams.

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Section: Chemistry Of Leavesmentioning

confidence: 75%

Effects of exotic eucalypt plantations on organic matter processing in Iberian streams

Larrañaga¹,

Larrañaga

Basaguren

et al. 2014

Internat. Rev. Hydrobiol.

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“…During in-stream decomposition, the leaf material often is enriched in nitrogen content as a consequence of microbial colonization, mainly fungi (Canhoto and Graça, 2008;Webster et al, 2009), since fungal mycelium shows higher %N than leaves (Cross et al, 2005). This renders the leaf material more palatable for detritivores (Graça and Cressa, 2010), which feed on most nutritive parts leading to a decrease in leaf-N to final stages of the process (Ferreira et al, 2006;Pérez et al, 2012). Thus, it was expectable that the %N of leaves from coarse bags (microbial activity and macroinvertebrate feeding) decreased along the decomposition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Leaf litter decomposition is influenced by a series of environmental factors such as temperature (Ferreira and Chauvet, 2011;Martínez et al, 2014), catchment land use (Lecerf and Richardson, 2010;Martínez et al, 2013a), dissolved nutrients (Greenwood et al, 2007;Pérez et al, 2012), pH (Larrañaga et al, 2010;Dangles et al, 2004) or oxygen saturation (Medeiros et al, 2009). One of the main drivers of this process in streams is flow regime, leaf processing being consistently lower in temporary streams than in perennial systems due to the lack of aquatic detritivores as well in semi-arid regions (Herbst and Reice, 1982;Boulton, 1991;Maamri et al, 1997;Pinna and Basset, 2004) as under oceanic climate conditions (Langhans and Tockner, 2006;Datry et al, 2011b;Schlief and Mutz, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of flow scarcity on leaf-litter processing under oceanic climate conditions in calcareous streams

Martínez

Pérez

Molinero

et al. 2015

Science of The Total Environment

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Although temporary streams represent a high proportion of the total number and length of running waters, historically the study of intermittent streams has received less attention than that of perennial ones. The goal of the present study was to assess the effects of flow cessation on litter decomposition in calcareous streams under oceanic climate conditions. For this, leaf litter of alder was incubated in four streams (S1, S2, S3 and S4) with different flow regimes (S3 and S4 with zero-flow periods) from northern Spain. To distinguish the relative importance and contribution of decomposers and detritivores, fine- and coarse-mesh litter bags were used. We determined processing rates, leaf-C, -N and -P concentrations, invertebrate colonization in coarse bags and benthic invertebrates. Decomposition rates in fine bags were similar among streams. In coarse bags, only one of the intermittent streams, S4, showed a lower rate than that in the other ones as a consequence of lower invertebrate colonization. The material incubated in fine bags presented higher leaf-N and -P concentrations than those in the coarse ones, except in S4, pointing out that the decomposition in this stream was driven mainly by microorganisms. Benthic macroinvertebrate and shredder density and biomass were lower in intermittent streams than those in perennial ones. However, the bags in S3 presented a greater amount of total macroinvertebrates and shredders comparing with the benthos. The most suitable explanation is that the fauna find a food substrate in bags less affected by calcite precipitation, which is common in the streambed at this site. Decomposition rate in coarse bags was positively related to associated shredder biomass. Thus, droughts in streams under oceanic climate conditions affect mainly the macroinvertebrate detritivore activity, although macroinvertebrates may show distinct behavior imposed by the physicochemical properties of water, mainly travertine precipitation, which can override the flow intermittence effects.

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“…In contrast, Bärlocher et al (2010) found values of up to 500 spores/mg/d on leaves exposed in the Republic of Panama, compared to a maximum of 17 spores/mg/d in our study. During leaf decomposition, sporulation declines, leading to a temporal pattern of the production of spores, with peaks at the beginning of the process related to the quality of the detritus (Gessner and Van Ryckegem, 2003;Pérez et al, 2012). This suggests that aquatic hyphomycetes dominate the fungal community early in the breakdown process and are a more reliable indicator of the performance of this group in the decomposition process than the concentration of ergosterol, which represents all groups of fungi colonizing the detritus.…”

Section: Contribution Of Microorganismsmentioning

confidence: 96%

Small leaf breakdown in a Savannah headwater stream

et al. 2015

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Please cite this article in press as: Alvim, E.A.C.C., et al., Small leaf breakdown in a Savannah headwater stream. Limnologica (2014), http://dx. a b s t r a c tThe chemical nature and nutritional quality of leaves influence microbial colonization, microbial activity and consequently leaf breakdown rates. In the present study, we compared the decomposition of Baccharis concinna and Baccharis dracunculifolia leaves and the influence of leaf quality on the microbial activity during the decomposition process. This investigation was conducted in a Brazilian savanna headwater stream with a riparian zone composed predominantly of herbaceous and shrubs. The breakdown coefficient was higher in B. dracunculifolia than in B. concinna; for both species, increases in leaf mass were observed after the 60th day. The secondary compounds were quickly leached in the first seven days, but the structural compounds persisted longer and served as the main carbon source for the detritus-associated microorganisms. The highest values of ergosterol were observed in the final stages of leaf breakdown and indicated the difficulty of colonization on the detritus; these values were related to the increase in leaf mass. The ATP content increased without corresponding increase in ergosterol content, suggesting a biofilm formation during leaf breakdown. These results indicated that the total microbial biomass can assimilate organic compounds released from detritus by the enzymatic action of fungi, demonstrating the importance of this group for releasing the energy stored in small leaves.

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Aquatic Hyphomycete Communities Associated with Decomposing Alder Leaf Litter in Reference Headwater Streams of the Basque Country (northern Spain)

Cited by 36 publications

References 57 publications

Effects of exotic eucalypt plantations on organic matter processing in Iberian streams

Effects of exotic eucalypt plantations on organic matter processing in Iberian streams

Effects of flow scarcity on leaf-litter processing under oceanic climate conditions in calcareous streams

Small leaf breakdown in a Savannah headwater stream

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