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Interaction of water temperature and shredders on leaf litter breakdown: a comparison of streams in Canada and Norway

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Abstract

Litter decomposition in running water sometimes proceeds faster in small, cool tributaries than in warm, wide rivers because stenothermal, leaf-shredding invertebrates are more abundant in the cool streams. Evidence from eastern Canada suggests that the cold-stenothermal stonefly Leuctra has a disproportionate influence on rapid mass loss in upstream reaches of soft-water river systems, but is not replaced by an effective, warm-water shredder downstream. To test the generality of this observation, we compared litter decomposition rates in upstream (second or third order) and downstream (fourth or fifth order) reaches of a medium-size river system in Nova Scotia (Canada) and three river systems in Nordland (Norway). In all river systems, mass loss of nitrogen-rich speckled alder (Alnus incana) leaves and nitrogen-poor red maple (Acer rubrum) leaves proceeded faster at the upstream site only if water temperature there was significantly cooler than downstream. Decomposition rates in all systems were strongly correlated with abundance of Leuctra, and to a lesser extent the caddisfly Lepidostoma. The distribution of Leuctra seems to be driven primarily by water temperature, with a strong peak of abundance at 14°C, but may also be influenced by competition from other shredding species.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. Rolv Kristiansen, Høgskolen i Bødo, and Argus Miljø Environmental Services for their gracious support, logistic and cultural, during the experiments in Norway. Summer students E. MacDonald and M. Hines provided invaluable assistance with field work and invertebrate enumerations. Finally, careful and thorough reviews by two anonymous reviewers substantially improved the manuscript. This research was supported by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and St. Francis Xavier University.

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  1. Department of Biology, St. Francis Xavier University, 2320 Notre Dame Avenue, Antigonish, NS, B2G 2W5, Canada

    Barry R. Taylor & Irene V. Andrushchenko

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  1. Barry R. Taylor
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  2. Irene V. Andrushchenko
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Correspondence to Barry R. Taylor.

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Taylor, B.R., Andrushchenko, I.V. Interaction of water temperature and shredders on leaf litter breakdown: a comparison of streams in Canada and Norway. Hydrobiologia 721, 77–88 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-013-1650-2

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