Poster Details
FOOD RESOURCES FOR BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATES IN TWO GREAT PLAINS RIVERS: TESTING STREAM MORPHOLOGY INFLUENCE
Carbon sources supporting food webs is a heavily researched area in lotic ecology and one fundamental challenge for ecologists is defining how basic stream attributes influence lotic ecosystems. In particular, how does stream morphology influence food webs in prairie river systems? We tested the influence of basic hydrogeomorphic variables on basal carbon sources for macroinvertebrates in rarely studied prairie rivers of the U.S. Great Plains: the Niobrara and Little Missouri. Invertebrates and potential food sources were collected in September 2018 at 14 sites varying in stream order and hydrogeomorphic patch type (functional process zone, FPZ). Samples were sorted by family into functional feeding groups (FFG), and processed for bulk tissue stable isotope analysis. Bayesian mixing models were used to analyze percent reliance of carbon sources by each taxa at each site, and how reliance differed based on different hydrogeomorphic factors and FFGs.
Jackob Lutchen (Primary Presenter/Author,Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Kansas, lutch006@ku.edu;
Caleb J. Robbins (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Alaska Fairbanks, Caleb_Robbins@baylor.edu;
James H. Thorp (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Kansas/Kansas Biological Survey, thorp@ku.edu;