HR: 1330h
AN: NB33E-10    [Abstracts]
TI: Leaf Litter Decomposition as a Functional Assessment of a Natural Stream Channel Design Project
AU: * Gentry, A
EM: jagent01@louisville.edu
AF: University of Louisville, Department of Biology, Louisville, KY 40292
AU: Word, D
EM: david.word@louisville.edu
AF: University of Louisville, Department of Biology, Louisville, KY 40292
AU: Carreiro, M
EM: M.Carreiro@louisville.edu
AF: University of Louisville, Department of Biology, Louisville, KY 40292
AU: Jack, J
EM: jeff.jack@louisville.edu
AF: University of Louisville, Department of Biology, Louisville, KY 40292
AB: In October 2003, a 965m reach of Wilson Creek (Bernheim Research Forest, Kentucky, USA) was relocated, and meanders and riffle-pool sequences were restored, providing a unique opportunity to measure the re-establishment of post-restoration stream functions. Leaf litter bags were placed across riffles in the restored reach, in an upstream reference site and in two reference streams. Bags were collected for nine months, and mass loss, N dynamics and fungal ergosterol were measured. Daily mass loss rates in the restored and reference riffles in Wilson Creek were faster (k= -0.00759 and k= -0.00855, respectively) than those of the two reference streams (k= -0.00511 and k= -0.00308). This is equivalent to litter mean residence times of 132 days for the restored reach in Wilson, 117 days in the upstream reference site, and 196 and 325 days for the reference streams. It appears that the decay rate in the restored reach is similar to the upstream portion of Wilson Creek, indicating rapid mass loss recovery in the restored reach. We also determined that same-stream reference sites are important for evaluating the restoration of stream functions, because of high decay rate variation among nearby streams within the same watershed.
DE: 1800 HYDROLOGY
DE: 1803 Anthropogenic effects
DE: 1899 General or miscellaneous
DE: 9810 New fields (not classifiable under other headings)
SC: North American Benthological Society [NB]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly