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Increased Light Availability Reduces the Importance of Bacterial Carbon in Headwater Stream Food Webs

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Abstract

Many ecosystems rely on subsidies of carbon and nutrients from surrounding environments. In headwater streams that are heavily shaded by riparian forests, allochthonous inputs from terrestrial systems often comprise a major part of the organic matter budget. Bacteria play a key role in organic matter cycling in streams, but there is limited evidence about how much bacterial carbon is actually assimilated by invertebrate and fish consumers, and how bacterial carbon assimilation varies among streams. We conducted stable isotope tracer additions of 13C-acetate, that is assimilated only by bacteria, and 15N-ammonium, that is assimilated by both bacteria and algae, in two small, shaded streams in the Adirondack region of New York State, USA. Our goal was to determine whether there is an important trophic link between bacteria and macroconsumers, and whether the link changes when the light environment is experimentally altered. In 2009, we evaluated bacterial carbon use in both streams with natural canopy cover using 10-day dual-isotope tracer releases. The canopy was then thinned in one stream to increase light availability and primary production and tracer experiments were repeated in 2010. As part of the tracer experiments, we developed a respiration assay to measure the δ 13C content of live bacteria, which provided critical information for determining how much of the carbon assimilated by invertebrate consumers is from bacterial sources. Some invertebrate taxa, including scraper mayflies (Heptagenia spp.) that feed largely on biofilms assimilated over 70% of their carbon from bacterial sources, whereas shredder caddisflies (Pycnopsyche spp.) that feed on decomposing leaves assimilated less than 1% of their carbon from bacteria. Increased light availability led to strong declines in the magnitude of bacterial carbon fluxes to different consumers (varying from −17 to −91% decrease across invertebrate taxa), suggesting that bacterial energy assimilation differs not only among consumer taxa but also within the same consumer taxa in streams with different ecological contexts. Our results demonstrate that fluxes of bacterial carbon to higher trophic levels in streams can be substantial, that is over 70% for some taxa, but that invertebrate taxa vary considerably in their reliance on bacterial carbon, and that local variation in carbon sources controls how much bacterial carbon invertebrates use.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by funding from the Cornell Biogeochemistry and Environmental Bioxomplexity IGERT program and the Kieckhefer Adirondack Fellowships program. Fumika Takahashi assisted with sample collection in the field and Kim Sparks assisted with preparing equipment for gas sampling. Dan Josephson, Cliff Kraft, the Adirondack League Club, and the Little Moose Field Station provided access to field sites and logistical support. Walter Dodds developed the dynamic compartment model used to calculate turnover time. This manuscript was improved by suggestions from Nelson Hairston Jr., Stuart Findlay, Cliff Kraft, and two anonymous reviewers.

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  1. Sarah M. Collins

    Present address: Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, 165 Natural Resources Building, 480 Wilson Road, East Lansing, Michigan, 48824, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Corson Hall, Ithaca, New York, 14853, USA

    Sarah M. Collins, Jed P. Sparks & Alexander S. Flecker

  2. School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Hardin Hall Room 403, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68583, USA

    Steven A. Thomas

  3. Department of Environmental Studies, University of California Santa Cruz, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, California, 95064, USA

    Sarah A. Wheatley

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Correspondence to Sarah M. Collins.

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Author Contributions

SMC, ASF, JPS, and SAT designed and planned research. SMC and SAW conducted field research and SMC coordinated lab and statistical analyses. JPS led methods development of respiration assays, SAT led method development of isotope tracer design. SMC wrote the manuscript with contributions from all authors.

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Collins, S.M., Sparks, J.P., Thomas, S.A. et al. Increased Light Availability Reduces the Importance of Bacterial Carbon in Headwater Stream Food Webs. Ecosystems 19, 396–410 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-015-9940-3

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