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SFS Annual Meeting

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TEMPERATURE AND LEAF LITTER SPECIES AFFECT FLUXES TO MICROBES AND INSECTS.

Many litter studies focus on decomposition rate but pathways of element flow from decomposing litter are at least equally important. Temperature increases decomposition both microbial and macroinvertebrate mediated decomposition. Here we test how temperature affects element flow from leaves to insect across litter types. Using artificial streams with three temperature treatments (ambient, 2.5 ºC above ambient and 5° C above ambient) and four litter types labeled with 15N and 13C) we calculated element fluxes. The four leaf species used in the experiment were, two slow decomposing (gamble oak and sycamore) and two fast decomposing (ash and freemont). Both temperature and litter species affect fluxes to microbes and insects. These results will be used to predict how stream ecosystems will respond to global warming.

Alisyn Martinez (Primary Presenter/Author), ECOSS, abm3@nau.edu;


Steven Thomas (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Alabama, sathomas16@ua.edu;


Alexander Flecker (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, asf3@cornell.edu;


Benjamin Koch (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Northern Arizona University, ben.koch@nau.edu;


Zasha Welsh (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Northern Arizona University, zkw3@nau.edu;


Jane Marks (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Northern Arizona University, jane.marks@nau.edu;