Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2010
Publication Title
Journal of the North American Benthological Society
DOI
10.1899/09-102.1
ISSN
1937-237X
Abstract
Tadpoles are often abundant and diverse consumers in headwater streams in the Neotropics. However, their populations are declining catastrophically in many regions, in part because of a chytrid fungal pathogen. These declines are occurring along a moving disease front in Central America and offer the rare opportunity to quantify the consequences of a sudden, dramatic decline in consumer diversity in a natural system. As part of the Tropical Amphibian Declines in Streams (TADS) project, we examined stream macroinvertebrate assemblage structure and production for 2 y in 4 stream reaches at 2 sites in Panama. One site initially had healthy amphibians but declined during our study (El Copé), and 1 site already had experienced a decline in 1996 (Fortuna). During the 1st y, total macroinvertebrate abundance, biomass, and production were generally similar among sites and showed no consistent patterns between pre- and post-decline streams. However, during the 2nd y, tadpole densities declined precipitously at El Copé, and total macroinvertebrate production was significantly lower in the El Copé streams than in Fortuna streams. Functional structure differed between sites. Abundance, biomass, and production of filterers generally were higher at Fortuna, and shredders generally were higher at El Copé. However, shredder production declined significantly in both El Copé reaches in the 2nd y as tadpoles declined. Nonmetric dimensional scaling (NMDS) based on abundance and production indicated that assemblages differed between sites, and patterns were linked to variations in relative availability of basal resources. Our results indicate that responses of remaining consumers to amphibian declines might not be evident in coarse metrics (e.g., total abundance and biomass), but functional and assemblage structure responses did occur. Ongoing, long-term studies at these sites might reveal further ecological consequences of the functional and taxonomic shifts we observed.
Recommended Citation
Colón-Gaud, Jose Checo, Matt R. Whiles, Karen R. Lips, Catherine M. Pringle, Susan Kilham, Roberto Brenes, Scot D. Peterson.
2010.
"Stream Invertebrate Responses to a Catastrophic Decline in Consumer Diversity."
Journal of the North American Benthological Society, 29 (4): 1185-1198.
doi: 10.1899/09-102.1 source: https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1899/09-102.1
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/biology-facpubs/21
Comments
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This article was retrieved from the Journal of the North American Benthological Society.