Tuesday, May 27, 2008
307

Leaves, grass, mosses or algae? – food preference among shredders in small grassland streams on Öland (Baltic Sea, Sweden)

Karolina Leberfinger and Irene Bohman. School of Pure and Applied Natural Sciences, University of Kalmar, Kalmar, 39182, Sweden

The landscape on the southern part of the island of Öland in the Baltic Sea (Sweden) is dominated by the Great Alvar plain; a limestone pavement with thin soil layers and sparse forest and shrub vegetation. Shredder detritivores in the streams flowing through this flat grassland have a CPOM menu dissimilar from the menu presented to shredders in many other small first order streams, where leaf litter often exceeds other sources of CPOM. We offered seven potential food sources from the streams to two shredder taxa, Limnephilus bipunctatus (Trichoptera) and Nemoura sp. (Plecoptera) in both single and multiple-choice experiments. From the preliminary results, we could see that leaves from shrubby cinquefoil (Potentilla fruticosa) were strongly preferred in all treatments. Leaf litter from birch, traditionally regarded as high-ranked food for shredders, was graded similar to living grass. Shrubby cinquefoil is the character shrub of the Great Alvar plain and has its main European distribution in this area. We suggest that this exclusive consumer-food link is of great importance to maintain shredder populations in these small and harsh stream ecosystems.


Web Page: shredders, open-canopy streams, food choice

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