SFS Annual Meeting

5/21/2019  |   14:00 - 14:15   |  250 DE

THE ECOLOGICAL ROLE AND DISTRIBUTION OF FRESHWATER CRABS (DECAPODA: PSEUDOTHELPHUSIDAE) IN NEOTROPICAL HEADWATER STREAMS: A CASE STUDY FROM COSTA RICA Freshwater crabs are the largest macroconsumers in many tropical headwater streams, but few studies have examined their roles in ecosystem processes such as leaf litter breakdown. As omnivorous macroconsumers, freshwater crabs affect various trophic levels and may directly increase leaf breakdown by direct consumption and fragmentation or indirectly decrease breakdown by consuming shredding insects. We conducted in-stream enclosure experiments to quantify the effects of pseudothelphusid crabs on leaf breakdown and insect colonization of leaves in headwater streams in Monteverde, Costa Rica. After 42 days of incubation, enclosures with crabs had significantly faster rates of leaf breakdown than those without crabs (with crabs: k = -0.020; without crabs: k = -0.016; p < 0.05). To scale up the effects of crabs on leaf breakdown across headwater streams, we quantified crab densities across 20 headwater stream sites using mark-recapture methods. Crab densities ranged from 0 to 8.1 crabs/m (95% CL: 4.9-13.1 crabs/m). Stream sites in undisturbed forested watersheds had higher crab densities than sites near human development. Anthropogenic pollution may decrease crab population densities and affect rates of leaf litter breakdown in tropical headwater streams.

Seth Wenger (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Georgia, sethwenger@fastmail.fm;


Scott Connelly (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Georgia, scottcon@uga.edu;


Amanda Rugenski (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Georgia, atrugenski@gmail.com;


Ingo Wehrtmann (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Costa Rica, ingowehrtmann@gmx.de;


Mary Freeman (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), US Geological Survey, mcfreeman@usgs.gov;


Carol Yang (Primary Presenter/Author), University of Georgia, carolyang214@gmail.com ;


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5/21/2019  |   14:15 - 14:30   |  250 DE

COMMUNITIES ASSOCIATED WITH THE FUNCTIONAL PROCESS ZONE SCALE: A CASE STUDY OF STREAM MACROINVERTEBRATES Rivers are being increasingly analyzed from a holistic scale focus, imposing the challenge to establish a clear sampling framework that integrates complex valley-to-reach hydrogeomorphic features. Here, we address this challenge by examining macroinvertebrate communities of different hydrogeomorphic patches, or Functional Process Zones (FPZs). We delineated FPZs using a self-emergent clustering method that classifies segments of rivers with similar hydrogeomorphic characteristics. We sampled macroinvertebrates across different FPZs and examined the taxonomic and functional organizations of their communities. We examined the main drivers of community compositional community dissimilarity as ?-diversity and nestedness components. We decomposed functional diversity into the Eltonian and Grinnellian aspects of the ecological niche, as we expected differences between FPZs to be mainly driven by the Eltonian aspect of the ecological niche as it relates to the interactions of macroinvertebrates with their direct environment, and thereby reflecting the many ecological processes defining an FPZ. Finally, we assessed the relative contributions of in-stream and watershed-scale environmental parameters in structuring these communities. Therefore, we partitioned variances between sets of environmental parameters of different spatial scales in explaining the structure and functional organization of macroinvertebrate communities.

Alain Maasri (Primary Presenter/Author), The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, alainmaasri@gmail.com;


Bolortsetseg Erdenee (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, erdenee.bolortsetseg@gmail.com;


James H. Thorp (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Kansas/Kansas Biological Survey, thorp@ku.edu;


Barbara Hayford (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Montana, barbara.hayford@umt.edu;
Dr. Barbara Hayford is the Executive Director of the Coastal Interpretive Center in Ocean Shores Washington and a research affiliate with the University of Montana. She received her Ph.D. (1998) in Entomology from the University of Kansas and MS (1993) in Applied Natural Science from Colorado State University, Pueblo. Barbara was the Assistant Director of the Central Plains Center for Bioassessment from 1998-2000. She then served as an assistant professor to full professor at Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska and as an assistant professor at Chadron State College in Chadron Nebraska. During her time at WSC Barbara served as the Director of the A. Jewell Schock Museum of Natural History. She honed her skills in chironomid taxonomy as a production taxonomist with Rhithron Associates, Inc. in Missoula, Montana. Barbara’s research has focused on biodiversity analysis and freshwater ecology of non-biting midges (Diptera: Chironomidae) including several years as part of the Mongolian Aquatic Insect Survey. Currently, she is exploring chironomid biodiversity in coastal streams, estuaries, and nearshore marine environments of Washington’s Pacific Coast.

Jon K. Gelhaus (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, jkg78@drexel.edu;


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5/21/2019  |   14:30 - 14:45   |  250 DE

GLOBAL TRENDS OF MACROINVERTEBRATE FUNCTIONAL GROUP DOMINANCE IN ARID ROCK POOLS AND FUTURE PROJECTIONS Rock pools are important surface waters in arid regions. Hydroperiod is a primary limiting factor for rock pool aquatic macroinvertebrate communities, as species must complete their life cycles or disperse aerially before drying occurs. Passive dispersers, often habitat specialists, can survive drying in situ via dormancy, while active dispersers can aerially, or terrestrially, travel away from drying pools. As climate change reduces hydroperiod length, the relative abundances of active vs passive dispersers may shift, which could have cascading effects on ecosystem function. Here, we analyze taxonomic data (species lists) obtained from 24 published studies to assess macroinvertebrate community structure (i.e. relative abundances of active dispersers, passive dispersers, and functional feeding groups) in rock pools across the globe. Taxa were equally comprised of active and passive dispersers. Active dispersers were predominately predators (60%) and gatherers (33%), but passive dispersers were mostly filterers (39%), gatherers (29%), and scrapers (21%). Shorter hydroperiods could eliminate passive disperser taxa, thus disrupting ecosystem functions these taxa provide, such as fine organic matter processing. These results provide a foundation for future work (e.g. experimental manipulations) to quantify how climate change will alter ecosystem function in rock pools.

Susan Washko (Primary Presenter/Author), Western Colorado University, swashko@western.edu;


Michael Bogan (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), School of Natural Resources and the Environment, The University of Arizona, mbogan@email.arizona.edu;


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5/21/2019  |   14:45 - 15:00   |  250 DE

MACROINVERTEBRATES.ORG: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION TO BUILD A DIGITAL TEACHING COLLECTION FOR AQUATIC MACROINVERTEBRATE IDENTIFICATION A persistent challenge in training volunteers to reliably and accurately identify aquatic macroinvertebrates lies in the creation of resources that convey entomological knowledge at the appropriate level for new learners with diverse backgrounds and experiences. The relative difficulty of providing appropriate reference material and the lack of identification practice opportunities for increasing volunteers’ engagement, confidence, and accuracy for learning the taxa can lead to questions about the legitimacy of volunteer-collected data. Macroinvertebrates.org is an innovative digital teaching and learning tool that addresses these issues by presenting explorable, high-resolution annotated images with supplemental multimedia to support the development of identification skills. Funded by the National Science Foundation, this design research effort brings together citizen science trainers and organizations, entomologists, learning scientists, and human-computer interaction researchers to create an online platform for training citizen scientists to identify aquatic macroinvertebrates for water quality monitoring. Through this interdisciplinary collaboration, we are building an interactive visual atlas of the most commonly found freshwater macroinvertebrates in the Eastern United States to help volunteers learn to see key diagnostic characters, with the ultimate aim of increasing the value of citizen-generated data for conservation and environmental decision-making.

Jessica Roberts (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Carnegie Mellon University, jarobert@andrew.cmu.edu;


John C. Morse (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Clemson University, jmorse@clemson.edu;


John Wenzel (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Carnegie Museum of Natural History, wenzelj@carnegiemnh.org;


Andrea Kautz (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Carnegie Museum of Natural History, kautza@carnegiemnh.org;


Marti Louw (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Carnegie Mellon University, mrlouw@andrew.cmu.edu;


Tara Muenz (Primary Presenter/Author), Stroud Water Research Center, tmuenz@stroudcenter.org;


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