Fish Distributions and Nutrient Cycling in Streams: Can Fish Create Biogeochemical Hotspots

McIntyre, Peter B.; Flecker, Alexander S.; Vanni, Michael J.; Hood, James M.; Taylor, Barrie F.; Thomas, Steven A.

doi:10.1890/07-1552.1

Cited by 268 publications

(337 citation statements)

References 55 publications

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“…One pathway that may be disrupted is nutrient cycling. For example, animal excretion and egestion can supply a large proportion of the nutrients demanded by primary producers (Grimm 1988a, b, Vanni 2002, Hall et al 2003, McIntyre et al 2008. In lakes, adding a piscivorous fish reduced nutrient excretion by all fish in the ecosystem (Schindler et al 1993).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduced lake trout alter nitrogen cycling beyond Yellowstone Lake

2015

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Citation: Tronstad, L. M., R. O. Hall Jr., and T. M. Koel. 2015. Introduced lake trout alter nitrogen cycling beyond Yellowstone Lake. Ecosphere 6(11):224. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/ES14-00544.1Abstract. Introduced predators can have large effects on the ecosystem in which they were introduced, but how much these effects extend to other ecosystems beyond the invaded one is less known. We compared how lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) affected nutrient cycling in an invaded and adjacent ecosystem in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA. Introduced lake trout in Yellowstone Lake caused the native Yellowstone cutthroat trout (Oncoryhynchus clarkii bouvieri ) population to decline. Native cutthroat trout are a dominant animal in the lake and may alter nutrient cycling in both Yellowstone Lake where they reside and in tributary streams used for spawning. We estimated changes in nutrient transport and nutrient uptake in both Yellowstone Lake and Clear Creek, a spawning stream, before and after the invasion of lake trout. Annual area-specific excretion fluxes from cutthroat trout were nine times higher in Clear Creek compared to Yellowstone Lake when cutthroat trout were abundant. However, fluxes within the lake and stream were similar after cutthroat trout declined. In Yellowstone Lake, zooplankton excretion supplied 86% of ammonium (NH 4 þ ) that was taken up, but cutthroat trout only supplied ,0.3% after the introduction of lake trout. Conversely, NH 4 þ excreted by cutthroat trout was likely a major flux in ClearCreek, because NH 4 þ fluxes from cutthroat trout exceeded watershed export of NH 4 þ in years when .3000 cutthroat trout spawned. Furthermore, NH 4 þ excretion fluxes from spawning cutthroat trout in ClearCreek supplied up to 6.1% of the NH 4 þ demanded by microbes after the introduction of lake trout.However, based on modeled past NH 4 þ uptake, we estimated that up to 60% of NH 4 þ excreted by spawning cutthroat trout may have been taken up by stream microbes when cutthroat trout were abundant. Therefore, transported NH 4 þ from spawning cutthroat trout was likely an integral part of N cycling in tributary streams in the past. By comparing the effects of declining cutthroat trout on two ecosystems, we show that lake trout had a larger effect on N cycling within an adjacent stream ecosystem than the invaded lake ecosystem itself, because the migratory behavior of cutthroat trout concentrated them in spawning streams increasing their effect.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduced lake trout alter nitrogen cycling beyond Yellowstone Lake

2015

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“…Tadpoles are a dominant animal grazer in some highland streams, and extirpation by disease increases standing stock of algae and production : respiration ratio v www.esajournals.org in streams (Connelly et al 2008). However production of the entire invertebrate assemblage did not increase (Colón-Gaud et al 2010), possibly because the biomass of tadpoles (0.12 g AFDM/m 2 , Colón-Gaud et al 2010) was 50 times smaller than that for Prochilodus in run habitats of Rio Las Marias (6.5 g DM/m 2 , McIntyre et al 2008), yet biomass of invertebrates was only twice as high in Rio Las Marias relative to invertebrates in Colón-Gaud et al (2010). The biomass disparity between fish and insect in Rio Las Marias combined with high growth rates may allow a strong, sudden increase in insect biomass and production.…”

Section: Discussion Prochilodus Reduced Insect Productionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Biomass of fishes at the site was quite high, 44.2 g wet mass/m 2 , which corresponded to an estimated standing stock of 10 g dry mass/m 2 , assuming fish are 22% dry mass (McIntyre et al 2008). Thus, fish biomass was 16 times higher than the 0.6 g AFDM/m 2 of insect biomass in the reference reach.…”

Section: The Energetic Role Of Insects In Rio Las Mariasmentioning

confidence: 93%

Detritivorous fish indirectly reduce insect secondary production in a tropical river

2011

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Abstract. Dominant animals can indirectly regulate population dynamics and energy flow for many other species in an ecosystem by altering habitat structure and resource availability. However, we know little about the degree to which other taxa can compensate for the loss of these dominant species. By removing animals and measuring responses of other animals as secondary production it is possible to assess how much other taxa can perform similar functions of these dominant taxa. Here we tested the response of aquatic insect secondary production to the loss of a dominant detritivorous fish Prochilodus mariae, in a tropical river, Rio Las Marias, Venezuela. Using an impermeable, plastic curtain, we excluded Prochilodus from one half of a 235-m stream reach for 6 weeks. We measured insect production as biomass times empirically measured body mass-specific growth rates for 8 common taxa constituting 59-74% of insect biomass. Removing Prochilodus increased the standing stock of benthic organic sediment. Biomass of the entire assemblage increased 1.7-fold and insect production for 8 taxa tripled upon exclusion of Prochilodus. Two fast-growing mayfly genera, Tricorythodes and Leptohyphes drove the increased secondary production. Despite low biomass of insects, growth rates were among the highest measured for freshwater insects, and these high growth rates in part caused high secondary production. Although insect production was high in the exclusion reach, insects did not compensate for the loss of Prochilodus in terms of consuming organic sediment showing that the capacity of detritivorous fish to process sediments is higher than that for aquatic insects in this tropical river.

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“…Planktivores dominate the fish communities in these lakes and will therefore have a strong impact on nutrient cycling in the water column (McIntyre et al, 2008;Munshaw et al, 2013). Moreover, that influence is dependent on the water's trophic level and on the level of fish biomass present (Pace et al, 1999;Jeppesen et al, 2003;Verant et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%