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Communication at the NABS Annual meeting, Keystone, 2000
(509) UTILITY OF BURNED DETRITUS (POPULUS SP. AND PINUS SP.) AS A COLONIZATION SUBSTRATE AND FOOD RESOURCE FOR SHREDDER INVERTEBRATES FOLLOWING A WILDFIRE.
T.R. Barnes, N.K. MacRury, and W.H. Clements. Department of Fishery and Wildlife Biology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523
A large-scale wildfire in Bandelier National Monument, NM severely depressed both benthic invertebrate taxa richness and abundance in the first post-fire year. Recolonization of invertebrates has been slow in following years, particularly for shredder stonefly taxa. Reasons may include reduced allocthonous detritus inputs and poor nutritional value of burned vegetation. We measured colonization of leafpacks (n=12) with eastern cottonwood (Populus sp.) and ponderosa pine (Pinus sp.), in both burned and unburned states, in an unburned stream. We compared relative taxa abundances and taxa richness of invertebrates after four and seven weeks across the four treatments. We also compared microbial respiration and nutritional content of burned and unburned cottonwood and pine detritus. Finally, we compared growth of shredder stoneflies, Pteronarcella badia (n=30), that were fed the different treatments in stream microcosms. Microbial respiration was highest on unburned cottonwood and lowest on burned pine. Nutrient analysis revealed that burning had little effect on lipid, carbon, nitrogen, and protein percentages of microbially-colonized detritus. Shredder taxa colonized on, and Pteronarcella grew in, all four treatments. Further differences and future research avenues will be discussed.
Presented at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, May 31, 2000 in Disturbance - Abiotic Factors
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