Register      Login
Marine and Freshwater Research Marine and Freshwater Research Society
Advances in the aquatic sciences
Shopping Cart: ( empty )
You are here: Home > Journals > MF > MF07085
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 59(6)

Nutrients and their duration of enrichment influence periphyton cover and biomass in rural and urban streams

Travis S. Elsdon A B C and Karin E. Limburg A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.

B Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories, School of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: travis.elsdon@adelaide.edu.au

Marine and Freshwater Research 59(6) 467-476 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF07085
Submitted: 19 April 2007  Accepted: 29 February 2008   Published: 19 June 2008

Abstract

Although it is well known that land use affects nutrient dynamics and algal growth in streams, the responses to different durations of nutrient supply are poorly understood. The associations of benthic (periphyton-dominated) biomass with concentrations of dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus in rural and urban streams in New York were quantified. Biomass was significantly greater (2-fold) in the urban compared with the rural stream, which was associated with differences in dissolved nutrients. Experimental field enrichment of nutrient concentrations and duration of exposure altered benthic periphyton. Increasing nutrients by 60–99% of ambient concentrations increased periphyton percentage cover and biomass. Periphyton abundance also increased with increasing duration of exposure to nutrients (2, 4 and 8 weeks); however, short-term pulses of nutrients (2 weeks) had no significant effect in the rural stream. These results indicate that effective management of nutrient delivery, by reducing time periods of high nutrient load, will minimise impacts to benthic environments.

Additional keywords: management, nitrogen, phosphorus, urbanisation, watershed.


Acknowledgements

We thank M. Ramsey and R. Oliveira Monteiro who helped with experimental work, D. Lyons, E. Menvielle and C. Hotaling for nutrient analyses, and V. Collins, C. Landis, Y. Munzimi, J. Popoli, C. Whritenour and A. Willson, who helped with sample collections. Research funding and support for T.S.E. was provided in full by a National Science Foundation grant to K.E.L. at SUNY–ESF (DEB-0238121). Manuscript preparation was done, in part, while T.S.E. was supported by an ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship. We thank C. J. Walsh, H. Hillebrand, D. Swaney, A. Irving, anonymous reviewers and Andrew Boulton for providing constructive comments on the manuscript.


References

Bender, E. A. , Case, T. J. , and Gilpin, M. E. (1984). Perturbation experiments in community ecology: theory and practice. Ecology 65, 1–13.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Downes B. J., Barmuta L. A., Fairweather P. G., Faith D. P., Keough M. J., Lake P. S., Mapstone B. D., and Quinn G. P. (2002). ‘Monitoring Ecological Impacts: Concepts and Practice in Flowing Waters.’ (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.)

Effler S. W., and Whitehead K. A. (1996). Tributaries and discharges. In ‘Limnological and Engineering Analysis of a Polluted Urban Lake: Prelude to Environmental Management of Onondaga Lake, New York’. (Ed. S. W. Effler.) pp. 97–199. (Springer: New York.)

Feminella, J. W. , and Hawkins, C. P. (1995). Interactions between stream herbivores and periphyton: a quantitative analysis of past experiments. Journal of the North American Benthological Society 14, 465–509.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Sand-Jensen K., and Nielsen S. L. (2004). Estuarine primary producers. In ‘Estuarine Nutrient Cycling: The Influence of Primary Producers’. (Eds S. L. Nielsen, G. T. Banta and M. F. Pedersen.) pp. 17–57. (Kluwer Academic Publishers: Dordrecht.)

Shortreed, K. R. S. , and Stockner, J. G. (1983). Periphyton biomass and species composition in a coastal rainforest stream in British Columbia: effects of environmental changes caused by logging. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 40, 1887–1895.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Steinman A. D., and Lamberti G. A. (1996). Biomass and pigmentation of benthic algae. In ‘Methods in Stream Ecology’. (Eds F. R. Hauer and G. A. Lamberti.) pp. 295–313. (Academic Press: San Diego, CA.)

Sterner R. W., and Elser J. J. (2002). ‘Ecological Stoichiometry: the Biology of Elements from Molecules to the Biosphere.’ (Princeton University Press: Princeton, NJ.)

Underwood A. J. (1997). ‘Experiments in Ecology: their Logical Design and Interpretation using Analysis of Variance.’ (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.)

Vaughan, G. M. , and Corballis, M. C. (1969). Beyond tests of significance: estimating strength of effects in selected ANOVA designs. Psychological Bulletin 72, 204–213.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar | Wetzel R. G. (1983). ‘Limnology.’ (Saunders College Publishing: New York.)

Worm, B. , Reusch, T. B. H. , and Lotze, H. K. (2000). In situ nutrient enrichment: methods for marine benthic ecology. International Reviews in Hydrobiology 85, 359–375.
| Crossref | GoogleScholarGoogle Scholar |