The significance of refuge heterogeneity for lowland stream caddisfly larvae to escape from drift.

The process of macroinvertebrate drift in freshwater lowland streams is characterized by dislodgement, drift distance and subsequent return to the bottom. Refuges are important to all drift phases, since they may help larvae to avoid dislodgement and to escape from drift, even more so if the refuge structure is complex and heterogeneous. The aim of the present study was therefore to determine the influence of refuge heterogeneity on the ability of caddisfly larvae to return to the bottom from drift and to avoid secondary dislodgement. To this purpose a series of indoor flume experiments were undertaken, testing six Limnephilidae (Trichoptera) species, that occur on a gradient from lotic to lentic environments. Bed morphology (plain, refuges with or without leaf patches) and flow velocity (low (0.1 m/s), intermediate (0.3 m/s) and high (0.5 m/s) were manipulated. We showed that all species were favoured by refuges and that especially for species on the lentic end of the gradient (L. lunatus, L. rhombicus and A. nervosa), the ability to escape from drift and to avoid secondary dislodgement was increased. Moreover, we showed that all species spent more time in refuges than in open channel parts and more time in heterogeneous refuges (leaf patches) than in bare refuges, the latter being especially the case for larvae of the lotic species. For lentic species, not well adapted to high flow velocity, refuges are thus crucial to escape from drift, while for the lotic species, better adapted to high flow velocity, the structure of the refuge becomes increasingly important. It is concluded that refuges may play a crucial role in restoring and maintaining biodiversity in widened, channelized and flashy lowland streams.

Time of Flight-Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry on isolated extracellular fractions and intact biofilms of three species of benthic diatoms.

Time of Flight-Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) was used to study compositional characteristics of Extracellular Polymeric Substances (EPS) and compared these to characteristics of the EPS-matrix of intact diatom biofilms. Three benthic diatoms species were investigated, Cylindrotheca closterium, Navicula mutica and Nitzschia cf. brevissima. Comparison of the ToF-SIMS spectra of sequentially extracted EPS-fractions by cluster analysis and multidimensional scaling analysis (MDS) indicated that soluble and bound EPS were not distinguishable based on their ion spectra. On the contrary the water insoluble bicarbonate soluble (WIBS)-EPS-fraction formed a distinct cluster showing that this material was compositionally different from the other EPS-fractions. Ion spectra of the EPS-fractions were dissimilar to results obtained from intact biofilms. This suggested that during the extraction procedure, the structure of the EPS irreversibly changed, which alters the fragmentation patterns of the extracellular surface layer. Furthermore, from the examination of the positive ion spectra it was shown that the overall composition of EPS in the intact biofilms was different between diatom species. In spite of these differences, several common peak patterns were shared between different species. This suggests the presence of common structural components in the EPS of these diatoms that may play a role in building the surface EPS-layer.

Biogenic stabilization of intertidal sediments: the importance of extracellular polymeric substances produced by benthic diatoms.

The sediment-stabilizing effect of benthic diatoms was investigated in a laboratory setting. Axenic cultures of the benthic diatoms Nitzschia cf. brevissima and Cylindrotheca closterium were inoculated in Petri dishes containing sand and incubated under axenic conditions. By ensuring aseptic routines throughout the experiments, interference from other organisms occurring with diatoms in natural photothrophic biofilms was avoided. This allowed the examination of the role of benthic diatoms in sediment stabilization. Increases in the critical erosion shear stress of the sediment were observed in the presence of both diatom taxa relative to sterile sediment. However, N. cf. brevissima was more effective than C. closterium. Values of critical shear stress in the experimental system were in the same range as those observed in natural biofilms, which indicates that diatoms are important agents for biogenic stabilization. Extracellular carbohydrate contents in the microcosms were similar for both diatom species. However, in the presence of N cf. brevissima, extracellular carbohydrate correlated significantly to critical shear stress, explaining up to 80% of the variation, whereas this was not the case for C. closterium. Therefore, it was concluded that the quantity of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) alone did not explain the biogenic stabilization. Observed adsorption of EPS to sediment particles depended on the relative amount of uronic acids in the exopolymers. Using fluorescently labeled lectins, confocal laser scanning microscopy showed that EPS secretion by N. cf. brevissima resulted in ordered three-dimensional matrix structures. It is suggested that the structuring of EPS plays an prominent role in the process of biostabilization, and that diatoms such as N. cf. brevissima are actively involved in producing the structure of EPS, whereas others such as C. closterium do not do so to the same extent.

Spatial distribution and inhibition by ammonium of methane oxidation in intertidal freshwater marshes.

In two intertidal marshes, the vertical distribution in the sediment and inhibition by ammonium of methane oxidation were investigated by slurry incubation experiments. The two sites differ in their dominant vegetation type, i.e., reed and bulrush, and in their heights above sea level. The reed site was elevated with respect to the bulrush site, resulting in a lower frequency and duration of flooding and, consequently, a higher potential for methane oxidation. Methane oxidation decreased with depth in the bulrush and reed slurries, although methane oxidation associated with root material from the bulrush plants increased with depth. Reed root material had a limited capacity for methane oxidation and showed no significant increase with depth. Inhibition of methane oxidation by ammonium was observed in all samples and depended on methane and ammonium concentrations. Increasing ammonium concentrations resulted in greater inhibition, and increasing methane concentrations resulted in less. Ammonium concentrations had to exceed methane concentrations by at least 30-fold to become effective for inhibition. This ratio was found only in the surface layer of the sediment. Hence, the ecological relevance for ammonium inhibition of methane oxidation in intertidal marshes is rather limited and is restricted to the surface layer. Nitrate production was restricted to the 0- to 5-cm-depth slurries.