College of Forestry
Aquatic Invertebrates
Seasonal and spatial fluctuations in Oncorhynchus trout diet in a temperate mixed-forest watershed
Aug-23-2016
To examine seasonal and spatial factors affecting prey consumption by Oncorhynchus trout, we examined trout diet from mainstem and tributary sites at Hinkle Creek, Oregon.
Long-term Studies of Macroinvertebrate Responses to Harvest
Apr-18-2013
Our studies of stream invertebrate responses to contemporary timber practices compared treated to control sites prior to and following harvest at Hinkle, Alsea and upper Trask watersheds. In each watershed the BACI study design and robust replication has been crucial in accounting for natural variations in macroinvertebrate distributions while examining patterns of change in response to harvest. As these basins vary physically in association with regional and geologic differences, initially we observed distinctive invertebrate assemblage composition for each watershed. In addition the proportion of chironomid midges and total benthic densities were higher at Alsea and Trask headwaters than at Hinkle. Our ability to detect responses to harvest within basins was enhanced when we found no pre-harvest differences in macroinvertebrate densities, percent chironomids, or taxa richness between control and treatment reaches of similar size at Hinkle and Trask watersheds. However significant invertebrate community differences were observed between the two Alsea tributaries, likely due to differences in tributary sizes or other physical and chemical differences. Though benthic invertebrate densities increased at headwater sites post-harvest, there were no detectable density differences at mainstem sites. Prey consumption by trout, whose densities at mainstem sites increased following harvest, possibly explained the lack of change observed for invertebrate densities.
Three Responses to Small Changes in Stream Temperature by Autumn-Emerging Aquatic Insects
Mar-29-2011
In this experimental study, we examined how small increases in summer water temperatures affected aquatic insect growth and autumn emergence. We maintained naturally fluctuating temperatures from 2 nearby streams and a 3rd regime, naturally fluctuating temperatures warmed by 3–5 degrees Celsius, in flow-through troughs from mid-summer until autumn. We added selected abundant Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera species to the 3 treatments in late July and observed emergence until early December. We described the taxon-specific responses of the caddisfly Psychoglypha bella and the mayfly Paraleptophlebia bicornuta, both of which survived well in the troughs (67–86%), and the stonefly Mesocapnia projecta, which we did not collect in mid-summer but had colonized all experimental troughs by October. We observed primarily phenological rather than morphological responses to higher water temperatures. The most synchronous emergence of male and female P. bella and P. bicornuta occurred in the trough with the coolest temperatures. Only P. bella emerged asynchronously from the trough with the warmest temperatures. The decreases in synchrony were largely the result of earlier emergence of males. Paraleptophlebia bicornuta were larger and tended towards asynchrony in the trough with water (and temperatures) from their natal stream. Individuals in the trough with the warmest temperature were smaller than individuals in other troughs, but did not but did not emerge earlier.
