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Potential impact of invasive amphipods on leaf litter recycling in aquatic ecosystems

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Abstract

The impact of biological invasions on local biodiversity is well established, but their impact on ecosystem functioning has only been sketchily documented. However, biological invasions may impede services provided by aquatic ecosystems, such as, for example, the decomposition of organic matter, a key process in most small streams. To address this question, we experimentally quantified the leaf litter breakdown activity of native and invasive amphipod species, which are keystone species in aquatic ecosystems. The breakdown rate of each species was used to estimate the potential leaf litter recycling in the Rhône and Meurthe Rivers in sites occupied solely by native species and sites dominated by invasive species. We found that invaders were not able to compensate for the activity of native species and that the replacement of native species led to a decrease of at least 66% in the rate of leaf litter recycling. Our approach provides empirical evidence of the functional impact of non-indigenous species on leaf litter recycling, using standard protocols and literature data.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the InBioProcess project (ANR-06-BDIV-007-InBioProcess 2007–2010) of the Biodiversity 2006 programme of the National Research Agency (Agence Nationale de la Recherche, ANR). We wish to thank Fabio Lepori for his interesting comments and Patricia Hulmes for linguistic corrections. We also greatly thank Ian Duggan and anonymous referees for helpful comments and advice concerning an earlier version of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR CNRS 5023 Laboratoire Ecologie des Hydrosystèmes Fluviaux, Université de Lyon 1, Campus de La Doua, 43 Bd du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne, France

    Christophe Piscart, Florian Mermillod-Blondin, Chafik Maazouzi, Sylvie Merigoux & Pierre Marmonier

  2. UMR CNRS IRD 6116 Institut Méditerranéen d’Ecologie et de Paléoécologie (IMEP), Université Paul Cézanne, Campus de St-Jérôme, 13397, Marseille cedex 20, France

    Chafik Maazouzi

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  1. Christophe Piscart
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  2. Florian Mermillod-Blondin
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  5. Pierre Marmonier
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Correspondence to Christophe Piscart.

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Piscart, C., Mermillod-Blondin, F., Maazouzi, C. et al. Potential impact of invasive amphipods on leaf litter recycling in aquatic ecosystems. Biol Invasions 13, 2861–2868 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-011-9969-y

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