Effects of macroconsumers on benthic communities: Rapid increases in dry-season accrual of calcium in a tropical karst stream.

Autor: Elaine Cristina Corrêa, Fabio de Oliveira Roque, Ryan Michael Utz, Jonas de Sousa Correa, Franco Leandro de Souza, Alan Paul Covich
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2018
Předmět:
Zdroj: PLoS ONE, Vol 13, Iss 12, p e0209102 (2018)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1932-6203
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0209102
Popis: Species loss from upper trophic levels can result in some major changes in community structure and ecosystem functions. Here, we experimentally excluded macroconsumers (e.g., fish and shrimp) in a Brazilian karst tropical stream during the dry season to investigate if their loss affected the accrual of calcium, dry mass (DM) and ash-free dry mass (AFDM) of sediment, benthic invertebrates, and chlorophyll-a. We found that the exclusion of macroconsumers decreased accrual of calcium. The absence of fish and shrimp may have promoted increased grazing by mayflies and snails in the electrified treatment as expressed by the depressed calcium accrual and shift in periphyton community composition. However, the exclusion of macroconsumers had no effect on DM and AFDM, chlorophyll-a, or total abundance of invertebrates. Our findings shed new light on the impact of macroconsumer loss and consequences for calcium accrual in karstic streams.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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