Seston Dynamics in Southern Appalachian Streams: Effects of Clear-cutting

Gurtz, Martin E.; Webster, Jackson R.; Wallace, J. Bruce

doi:10.1139/f80-078

Cited by 116 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(35 reference statements)

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“…Consequently most ses- ton transport in small streams consists of very small particles (e.g. Sedell et al 1978;Naiman and Sedalll979a;Gurtz et al 1980;Wallace et al 1982a). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental studies of physical factors affecting seston transport in streams1

Webster

Benfield

Golladay

et al. 1987

Limnology & Oceanography

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We conducted three series of experiments in laboratory and natural streams to evaluate effects of various physical factors on seston (particulate organic matter) retention, entrainment, and transport. Results of laboratory experiments showed that substrate characteristics were important in determining retention of all sizes of seston. Retention increased with roughness and substrate complexity. During simulated storms in laboratory streams, seston concentrations were not generally correlated with discharge. However, we found strong correlation between seston concentration and the rate of increase in discharge during rising hydrographs, and, after peak discharge, seston concentration dropped exponentially independent of discharge. Simulated storms conducted in a natural stream channel supported those findings. Results of these experiments and published field studies suggest that existing sediment transport models have little application to seston transport in small streams primarily because of limited availability of seston. During baseflow, seston transport depends on the rate of biological particle generation and retention characteristics of the streambed. Seston transport during storms depends on the rate of increase in discharge, streambed retention, and the availability of particulate organic material on the streambed.

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“…Consequently most ses- ton transport in small streams consists of very small particles (e.g. Sedell et al 1978;Naiman and Sedalll979a;Gurtz et al 1980;Wallace et al 1982a). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental studies of physical factors affecting seston transport in streams1

Webster

Benfield

Golladay

et al. 1987

Limnology & Oceanography

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“…It is not surprising that its feeding mechanisms rule out selectivity by particle size or type Malas 1976, Wiggins 1977). The panicles utilized by Dolophilodes, roughly 1 to 25 urn in diameter, are the most abundant and also the most seasonally dependable of all the seston (Sedell et al 1978, Naiman and Sedeil 1979, Gurtz et al 1980) implying that food is not a factor limiting this species. Dolophilodes occupies a very specific microhabitat, the undersides of rocks (Maias and Wallace 1977), and in considerable densities.…”

Section: Limiting Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Model of Seston Capture by Net-Spinning Caddisflies

Georgian¹,

Wallace²

1981

Oikos

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Six species of net-spinning caddisflies (Trichoptera) coexist in the headwater region of the Tallulah River, a rocky, high-gradient tributary of the Savannah River. These caddisflies feed on the suspended organic matter (seston) captured by their nets. We analyzed these species' nets, microhabitat preferences, and monthly abundances. These data, along with the particle size distributions and monthly abundances of seston, were incorporated into a model of seston capture by these net-spinning caddisflies.The resulting model permitted us to test the hypothesis that differences in capture net mesh sizes serve to partition, by size, the food available to coexisting net-spinning caddisflies. and thus reduce competition between them. The model predicted annual seston capture by the six species of 1300 g AFDW (ash free dry weight), over 1000 times their annual production. The seston captured per longitudinal meter of stream represents 0.005% of the total seston in transport. Resource overlap coefficients indicated that the instars of the five hydropsychid species do not partition the seston by particle size or food type in a manner that reflects competitive interactions. We hypothesize that these filter feeders are limited by the availability of high-quality food items (primarily drifting animals) rather than by the overall seston supply. Species with highly selective feeding habits must filter large volumes of water to permit them to specialize on rare items. High filtration rates require rapid current velocities, large nets, and coarse net meshes. Instars with coarse-meshed nets showed the largest proportionate declines in seston capture rates when the model was simulated using the lower current velocity and smaller seston panicles sizes typical for the larger Savannah River.

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“…Export is often estimated as the product of instantaneous measures of particulate organic matter (POM) concentration and discharge over a given interval, frequently with some sort of rating curve. However, discharge and POM concentrations are generally poorly related (Bilby and Likens 1979;Gurtz et al 1980). These studies, as well as those by Cummins et al (1983), Cuffney and Wallace (1988), and Webster et al (1990), indicate that infrequent samples and poor rating curves are not good predictors of POM export.…”

Section: Acknowledgmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Export of fine organic particles from headwater streams: Effects of season, extreme discharges, and invertebrate manipulation

Wallace

Cuffney

Webster

et al. 1991

Limnology & Oceanography

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106

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Export of fine particulate organic matter (FPOM) was measured from streams draining Catchments 53, 54, and 55 (C53, C54, and C55) at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory for 5 yr, encompassing the driest and wettest years of the past 55-yr record. Macroinvertebrate populations in C54 were reduced for 3 yr by seasonal treatments with insecticide. During pesticide treatment, FPOM concentrations decreased abruptly in C54, remained well below those of reference streams for the 3-yr treatment period, and then increased during the 1st yr of recovery. Macroinvertebrate reduction resulted in an estimated 170-200 kg loss in FPOM export during the 3 yr of treatment and 1 st yr of recovery. Annual export of FPOM was strongly related to annual discharge, but the impact of biotic manipulation on FPOM export in C54 was at least as great as that produced by extreme high and low discharges. FPOM export during sampling intervals was directly related to maximum discharge during the intervals. Treatment of CS4 significantly reduced FPOM export per unit maximum discharge. Seasonal relationships between FPOM export and maximum discharge indicated more export per unit maximum discharge in summer in reference streams and C54 in untreated years. In contrast, during treatment years of C54, export per unit maximum discharge was lowest in summer. FPOM concentrations measured during storms showed increasing concentrations with increasing discharge in all streams, however, much more FPOM was suspended in the reference streams than in C54. Thus, macroinvertebrate reduction altered the magnitude of FPOM export during storms, the seasonal pattern of export, and the annual export of FPOM.

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Seston Dynamics in Southern Appalachian Streams: Effects of Clear-cutting

Cited by 116 publications

References 18 publications

Experimental studies of physical factors affecting seston transport in streams1

Experimental studies of physical factors affecting seston transport in streams1

A Model of Seston Capture by Net-Spinning Caddisflies

Export of fine organic particles from headwater streams: Effects of season, extreme discharges, and invertebrate manipulation

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