quiz 2 Flashcards
ecosystem processes
Rates of cycling of energy and matter and nutrients
ecosystem service
An ecosystem process (cycling of energy/matter/nutrients) that benefits humanity
what are the four ecosystem services (ecosystem process that benefits humanity) that wetlands do
dampening flow - like a sponge, wetlands can store water and slowly release it, dampens flows and helps decrease the risk of downstream flooding (can also release during the summer to prevent droughts)
cleaning water - wetlands will accumulate and store toxins, sediments, and transforms nutrients
carbon storage - water logged/ anoxic sediments, organic matter is broken down slowly in wetlands so it accumulates in the sediments and stores it
primary production - productive system that supports food web
carbon storage in seasonal vs permanent wetland
seasonal wetland - little long-term storage because wet-dry cycle enables decomposition
permanent wetland- lots of long-term storage due to water-logged anoxic sediments
nutrient cycling in seasonal vs permanent wetland
seasonal- wet-dry cycle enables transformation of nutrients, more soluble nutrients
permanent wetland - due to anoxic sediments, nutrients may accumulate trapped in sediments (lower bio available nutrients)
productivity in seasonal/permanent wetland
seasonal - higher
permanent - lower
organisms that exist in seasonal/permanent wetlands
seasonal - animals with short generation times or short aquatic life stages
permanent - animals with longer aquatic phase or generation times
methods for surviving wetland seasonality (don’t describe)
diapause, quiescence/anhydrobiosis, migration
diapause
when organisms produce resting eggs that can persist during dry phases e.g many zooplankton
quiescence/anhydrobiosis
organisms enter a stage where they can resist drying out i.e tardigrades, some rotifers, nematodes
migration for wetland seasonality
some organisms undergo metamorphosis from aquatic larvae to terrestrial adult stage - amphibians, most aquatic insects (could just leave)
talk about juvenile salmon and their use of wetlands
will migrate at specific times when there are wet periods in the wetlands so that they can go the through
what are resting eggs in wetlands and why are they important
resting eggs can accumulate in the sediment and can be dormant for decades to centuries prior to emergence - can be used for scientific studies to see how ecosystems shift with response to rapid environmental change (looking at old genotypes/populations from the past), evolutionary response to change
talk about the alpine wetlands paper
changes by climate change and fish invasions - have changed their system, reduced area for organisms (especially amphibians) that are from there - because the smaller wetlands are more vulnerable to climate change (can dry up) so nowhere for anyone to go - and larger wetlands/ lakes will probably be stocked with fish that were added for fishing driving the amphibians up into the smaller wetlands that don’t have much area to begin with
drainage basin
area that drains into a river (watershed) rain drop falls and goes towards water ( is to drainage basin)
dendritic networks
branching structure - river carve channels/ valleys in dendritic structure - most effective way to life materials that are dispersed
what are the two things streams are characterized by being
nested - many small streams drain into larger streams
hierarchical - hierarchical organization of the river/stream network, where streams of different sizes are interconnected in a systematic manner
what would the graph look like if stream number vs order
as stream order increases, stream number decreases (downwards slips) meaning that more streams are smaller less streams are higher order
what is stream order? how does a stream increase in order?
stream order is a method to classify streams based on size and position within river/stream network. streams increase in order when two streams of equal order join together
describe first- order vs 10 order streams, what order is most common
first- order is typically small, 10 - order are very large, first- order is most common
how do the sizes of streams relate to the areas they drain
small streams, drain, small areas, large rivers, drain larger areas 
hyporheic river
River beneath the river, water flows through sediment by the river
lateral connectivity
Connection side to side i.e. leaves fall into stream (water rises/falls, and connect areas on side)
Longitudinal connectivity
connections, upstream/downstream, i.e. stream water transport sediments, and particulate matter downstream
flow regime
Pattern of water flow, including floods, overtime of a given system. controls movement of materials snow dominated versus rain dominated
rain dominated flow regime
very low flow in summer season (not ouch rain) less flow, small and low in elevation (coming down as rain rather than from mountain)
snow dominated flow regime
Water comes down during summer, draining and high elevation, winter – less water, locked as ice
how do dams affect flow regime, what is a consequence of that?
in Utah a dam had water flower regime from snow, but because of holding water for them, there’s no seasonality
cottonwoods – adapted to live by Rivers, where there is spring melt so seeds can be distributed, natural clock driven by life cycle – – dams, prevent creation of this habitat
how is flow regime affected overall
Various year to year based on drought or cold years, but also really affected by climate change, temperature affects the system, which has huge implications
What would snow/rain flow regime be like
Low summer/fall, rain in October/November and snow melt in spring
What does it mean that food webs are based on green and brown sources of energy?
Green – production based i.e. primary producers, like algae
brown – detritus based
what is autochenous food web, what are production rates controlled by?
Green - primary production like algae produced from within the ecosystems types – algae (easier to consume than detritud)and macrophytes
production rate controlled by; nutrients, temperature, light
what is the allochthonous food web
Brown – produced outside, ecosystems i.e. detritus
organic matter, falls into the stream, small streams, usually supported by this
shredders are important to carbon cycling (breaking particles down - organic input controlled by riparian vegetation type, season, ratio of edge;area)
what is the river continuum concept (overall idea)
first unified hypothesis – describes how stream systematically change as one goes from small headwater streams to large lowland rivers.
The theory is headwaters to downstream changes where energy comes from and the invertebrates that are there.
what would the energy be from in headwater?
Lots of trees, less sun – less autochthonous production (green production) – most carbon from trees (leaves)
What would energy be from in downstream?
less overhang from trees, so more local production (getting more light in)
What are the important types of organisms in the stream that are part of stream ecology?
shredders – breakdown, big chunks of carbon
grazers – more in lower water, where stuff is mostly broken down
Predators
Collectors – filter outline, particulate matter, downstream
what type of organisms will be in headwater?
Shredder - breaking down leaves
What type of organisms will be in mid water?
grazers - breaking down smaller things (eating things like algae)
what type of organisms will be in down water?
Collectors/gathers
by looking at the stream benthic community, what can we learn?
Can learn how the ecosystem is working and where the main source of carbon/energy is based on the river continuum concept
what do shredders do?
Taxa that transforms course particular organic matter to find particular organic matter i.e. some big stone flies, wood-cases caddis flies
What are examples of grazers?
many clinger mayflies
what are collector/gathers (two types)
deposit feeder – these tax of feed from fine particular organic matter that is on the bottom of the stream i.e. chrinomids
suspension feeders - taxa that feed on find particulate matter that is drifting downstream. They are filter, feeders, i.e. blackfly larvae
what are examples of stream benthic invertebrate that are predators
some stoneflies, beetle larvae
why are stream benthic in vertebrates common bioindicators (indicators of health of the stream ecosystem.)
– they are differently sensitive to different stressors. Some that are tolerant, some are quite sensitive
stoneflies are indicators of healthy systems, leeches are more tolerant. They stay in place and reflect conditions of that location – will reflect stressors, even if stressor is pulsed and hard to detect - can be easily collected/counted – more economically viable than monitoring water quality – reveal biological impact of potentially multiple stressors .
what is the EPT method of looking at stream health?
More simpler method – looking at the proportion of benthic invertebrates communities that are mayflies, stoneflies, and caddisflies – they are usually pollution sensitive so when there are more of them, it is generally an indicator that the stream is healthy and not degraded
what is the B – IBI method of stream health
more complex method – benthic index of biotic integrity – metric used to identify and classify water pollution problems – combine different summary statistics such as; richness of the total number of benthic taxa, total number of intolerant, taxa, etc. – a lot of work
why is sampling of benthic invertebrate better than just water sampling?
pollution can be transient (happen short term), and not know the long-term effects by just checking the conditions of the water, whereas, looking at the invertebrate will give the overall health of the system
