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Tuesday, June 5, 2007
480
Effects of Leaf Litter and Sunfish Predation on a Macroinvertebrate Community
Christopher H. Kodani, Ph.D., Matthew Upton, and Kenneth Wardle. Department of Natural Sciences, Clayton State University, 2000 Clayton State Blvd., Morrow, GA 30260
As with all communities, a benthic macroinvertebrate community’s composition can be influenced by its resources and consumers. We set out to experiment in the Clayton State University campus pond known as Swan Lake, to investigate the following questions: 1) What effect do sunfish have upon a macroinvertebrate community? 2) Does the type of leaf litter substrate have an effect on the community? 3) Is there an interaction between substrate type and fish predation? We constructed experimental microcosms from small plastic boxes and provided them with a leaf litter substrate (pine straw vs. deciduous leaves) and a mesh cover (large mesh to allow sunfish in vs. small mesh to exclude fish). Pine straw harbored significantly more macroinvertebrates than deciduous leaves, whereas sunfish predation did not have a significant effect on total macroinvertebrates, and there was no significant interaction between the factors. Interestingly, in the presence of sunfish, the number of bloodworms decreased while the number of amphipods increased, suggesting that sunfish predation may play a role in the competition between these macroinvertebrates.
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