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Leaf Breakdown in a Tropical Stream
Author(s) -
Gonçalves José Francisco,
França Juliana S.,
Medeiros Adriana O.,
Rosa Carlos A.,
Callisto Marcos
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
international review of hydrobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1522-2632
pISSN - 1434-2944
DOI - 10.1002/iroh.200510826
Subject(s) - detritus , riparian zone , colonization , invertebrate , ecology , vegetation (pathology) , microorganism , ecological succession , environmental science , biology , ecosystem , environmental chemistry , chemistry , bacteria , habitat , medicine , genetics , pathology
The objectives of this study were to investigate leaf breakdown in two reaches of different magnitudes, one of a 3 rd (closed riparian vegetation) order and the other of a 4 th (open riparian vegetation) order, in a tropical stream and to assess the colonization of invertebrates and microorganisms during the processing of detritus. We observed that the detritus in a reach of 4 th order decomposed 2.4 times faster than the detritus in a reach of 3 rd order, in which, we observed that nitrate concentration and water velocity were greater. This study showed that the chemical composition of detritus does not appear to be important in evaluating leaf breakdown. However, it was shown to be important to biological colonization. The invertebrate community appeared not to have been structured by the decomposition process, but instead by the degradative ecological succession process. With regards to biological colonization, we observed that the density of bacteria in the initial stages was more important while fungi appeared more in the intermediate and final stages. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)