A 3-year study of Wainiha River on Kaua'i, Hawai'i, was carried out to determine the impact that water removal had on key stream ecosystem parameters and functions. The study area included a diversion dam for a hydroelectric plant that removes water at an elevation of 213 m and returns it to the stream about 6 km downstream at an elevation of 30 m. There were two highelevation sites, one with undiverted flow and one with reduced flow, and two low-elevation sites, one with reduced flow and one with full flow restored. Monthly samples were taken of instream and riparian invertebrates and plants. When samples from similar elevations were compared, dewatered sites had lower concentrations of benthic photosynthetic pigments than full-flow sites, and benthic ash-free dry mass (AFDM) was higher at the two low-elevation sites regardless of flow. Benthic chlorophyll a (chl a) and AFDM were higher in summer months than in the winter. Benthic invertebrate abundance was highest at the full-flow, low-elevation site and benthic invertebrate biomass was highest at the full-flow, high-elevation site. Season had only marginal effects on abundance and biomass of benthic invertebrates. Diversity of benthic invertebrates was higher at the more-downstream sites. Abundance of drifting invertebrates was highest at the site above the diversion dam and generally higher in winter than in summer months. Biomass of drifting invertebrates was also highest at the above-dam site but there was little seasonal difference. Almost all parameters measured were lowest at the site just downstream of the diversion dam. The biotic parameters responded only weakly to flows that had occurred up to 1 month before the measurements were made. Flow, elevation, and season interact in complex ways that impact ecosystem parameters and functions, but water diversion can override all these environmental factors.In the history of limnology, the study of rivers (lotic systems) has lagged behind that of lakes (lentic systems). By the first decades of the twentieth century the basic understanding of the dynamics of thermal stratification provided a common framework for numerous subsequent studies of lentic systems (Ruttner 1953, Hutchinson 1957. For a long time students of rivers had no such unifying theme: hydrologists studied channel formation and, more practically, flood control, and biologists tended to focus on game fish or the production of food for these fish (see Hynes 1970 and Cummins et al. 1995 for historical accounts). Realization of the importance of complex interactions between the geomorphological setting of the stream and the physical and biological properties of the stream system set the stage for a conceptual model of stream dynamics based on func-
In temperate forested streams, fruit from riparian trees is generally a minor and seasonal component of the allo‐chthonous detritus. In contrast, riparian fruit input to tropical streams is often high and continuous. Detrital fruit is abundant in some forested Hawaiian streams compared to other forms of riparian detritus, and rates of leaf litter processing by macroscopic invertebrates are very low. These observations suggested that fruit is an important food resource for detritivores. A microcosm system was used to measure the rates at which two common detrital fruits, guava and mango, were processed by two common detritivores, the prawn Macrobrachium lar and the gastropod Tarebia granifera. Comparisons of fruit weight loss rates normalized by detritivore weight indicated that M, lar processed guavas at significantly higher rates than T. granifera, differences in rates of mango processing by M. lar and T. granifera were not significant. Microcosms containing both M. lar and T. granifera were used to test for interactions between the invertebrates that affected rates of mango processing. No interspecific interactions were detected. A field study was conducted in Kaiwiki Stream, Island of Hawaii, to determine rates of detrital fruit input and export. Detrital fruit was supplied to the study area year‐round, with peaks corresponding to summer and autumn fruiting seasons. Guavas and mangos accounted for 85 percent of the fruit biomass entering the stream and 92 percent of the fruit exported from the stream. Mean daily export rates of guava were 7 percent of input, and export rates of mango were 5 percent of input. These measurements suggested that most of the fruit entering the stream is retained and comprises a substantial food resource for detritivores. Comparisons of the biomass‐specific rates at which M. lar and T. granifera processed mangos and guavas with the rates at which mangos and guavas entered Kaiwiki Stream suggested that these invertebrates can process most of the detrital fruit in the stream.
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