Abstract Title
Does Invertebrate Drift Vary Spatially within a Stream and Affect Food Availability for Salmonid Fishes?
Additional Funding Sources
This research is made possible by Idaho NSF-EPSCoR Program (award OIA-1757324)
Abstract
Invertebrate drift is the downstream transport of invertebrates within flowing freshwater systems like streams and rivers, which is a significant contributor to food availability for salmonid fishes. Streams also transport detritus which is important in nutrient and carbon flux in water systems. Despite there being a significant interest in drift effects on broader food web implications, there is much of the process that is not well understood. In a lotic freshwater system, there is drift driven by the hydraulics of the water (passive drift) and drift driven by intentional movements (active drift). Based on this idea of differing drift forces the two main objectives of this study are: 1) Does the concentration of macroinvertebrate BMI or detritus vary spatially within a stream due to local variation in velocity and turbulence (stream hydraulics)? 2) Can detritus weight (CPOM) be an indicator of active versus passive drift for aquatic invertebrates?
Does Invertebrate Drift Vary Spatially within a Stream and Affect Food Availability for Salmonid Fishes?
Invertebrate drift is the downstream transport of invertebrates within flowing freshwater systems like streams and rivers, which is a significant contributor to food availability for salmonid fishes. Streams also transport detritus which is important in nutrient and carbon flux in water systems. Despite there being a significant interest in drift effects on broader food web implications, there is much of the process that is not well understood. In a lotic freshwater system, there is drift driven by the hydraulics of the water (passive drift) and drift driven by intentional movements (active drift). Based on this idea of differing drift forces the two main objectives of this study are: 1) Does the concentration of macroinvertebrate BMI or detritus vary spatially within a stream due to local variation in velocity and turbulence (stream hydraulics)? 2) Can detritus weight (CPOM) be an indicator of active versus passive drift for aquatic invertebrates?