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Predator-Driven Nutrient Recycling in California Stream Ecosystems

Nutrient recycling by consumers in streams can influence ecosystem nutrient availability and the assemblage and growth of photoautotrophs. Stream fishes can play a large role in nutrient recycling, but contributions by other vertebrates to overall recycling rates remain poorly studied. In tributarie...

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Autores principales: Munshaw, Robin G., Palen, Wendy J., Courcelles, Danielle M., Finlay, Jacques C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3592796/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23520520
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058542
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author Munshaw, Robin G.
Palen, Wendy J.
Courcelles, Danielle M.
Finlay, Jacques C.
author_facet Munshaw, Robin G.
Palen, Wendy J.
Courcelles, Danielle M.
Finlay, Jacques C.
author_sort Munshaw, Robin G.
collection PubMed
description Nutrient recycling by consumers in streams can influence ecosystem nutrient availability and the assemblage and growth of photoautotrophs. Stream fishes can play a large role in nutrient recycling, but contributions by other vertebrates to overall recycling rates remain poorly studied. In tributaries of the Pacific Northwest, coastal giant salamanders (Dicamptodon tenebrosus) occur at high densities alongside steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and are top aquatic predators. We surveyed the density and body size distributions of D. tenebrosus and O. mykiss in a California tributary stream, combined with a field study to determine mass-specific excretion rates of ammonium (N) and total dissolved phosphorus (P) for D. tenebrosus. We estimated O. mykiss excretion rates (N, P) by bioenergetics using field-collected data on the nutrient composition of O. mykiss diets from the same system. Despite lower abundance, D. tenebrosus biomass was 2.5 times higher than O. mykiss. Mass-specific excretion summed over 170 m of stream revealed that O. mykiss recycle 1.7 times more N, and 1.2 times more P than D. tenebrosus, and had a higher N:P ratio (8.7) than that of D. tenebrosus (6.0), or the two species combined (7.5). Through simulated trade-offs in biomass, we estimate that shifts from salamander biomass toward fish biomass have the potential to ease nutrient limitation in forested tributary streams. These results suggest that natural and anthropogenic heterogeneity in the relative abundance of these vertebrates and variation in the uptake rates across river networks can affect broad-scale patterns of nutrient limitation.
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spelling pubmed-35927962013-03-21 Predator-Driven Nutrient Recycling in California Stream Ecosystems Munshaw, Robin G. Palen, Wendy J. Courcelles, Danielle M. Finlay, Jacques C. PLoS One Research Article Nutrient recycling by consumers in streams can influence ecosystem nutrient availability and the assemblage and growth of photoautotrophs. Stream fishes can play a large role in nutrient recycling, but contributions by other vertebrates to overall recycling rates remain poorly studied. In tributaries of the Pacific Northwest, coastal giant salamanders (Dicamptodon tenebrosus) occur at high densities alongside steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and are top aquatic predators. We surveyed the density and body size distributions of D. tenebrosus and O. mykiss in a California tributary stream, combined with a field study to determine mass-specific excretion rates of ammonium (N) and total dissolved phosphorus (P) for D. tenebrosus. We estimated O. mykiss excretion rates (N, P) by bioenergetics using field-collected data on the nutrient composition of O. mykiss diets from the same system. Despite lower abundance, D. tenebrosus biomass was 2.5 times higher than O. mykiss. Mass-specific excretion summed over 170 m of stream revealed that O. mykiss recycle 1.7 times more N, and 1.2 times more P than D. tenebrosus, and had a higher N:P ratio (8.7) than that of D. tenebrosus (6.0), or the two species combined (7.5). Through simulated trade-offs in biomass, we estimate that shifts from salamander biomass toward fish biomass have the potential to ease nutrient limitation in forested tributary streams. These results suggest that natural and anthropogenic heterogeneity in the relative abundance of these vertebrates and variation in the uptake rates across river networks can affect broad-scale patterns of nutrient limitation. Public Library of Science 2013-03-08 /pmc/articles/PMC3592796/ /pubmed/23520520 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058542 Text en © 2013 Munshaw et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Munshaw, Robin G.
Palen, Wendy J.
Courcelles, Danielle M.
Finlay, Jacques C.
Predator-Driven Nutrient Recycling in California Stream Ecosystems
title Predator-Driven Nutrient Recycling in California Stream Ecosystems
title_full Predator-Driven Nutrient Recycling in California Stream Ecosystems
title_fullStr Predator-Driven Nutrient Recycling in California Stream Ecosystems
title_full_unstemmed Predator-Driven Nutrient Recycling in California Stream Ecosystems
title_short Predator-Driven Nutrient Recycling in California Stream Ecosystems
title_sort predator-driven nutrient recycling in california stream ecosystems
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3592796/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23520520
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058542
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