Leaf litter quality affects aquatic insect emergence: Contrasting patterns from two foundation trees

Published by Ecoss on

leshyk illustration leaf litter in water

The mass emergence of metamorphosed aquatic insect larvae as airborne adults provides an important seasonal pulse of prey biomass to many aquatic ecosystems.  Ecoss research explored whether the type and quality of leaf litter on which these aquatic larvae feed makes a difference in the types and proportions of various emerging insects in a local area.  The findings reveal that closely-related tree species produce litter that fosters similar emerging insect communities, showing that the makeup of riparian vegetation has a ripple effect in shaping the “quality” of locally-emerging insects, with consequences for the other players in local food webs and energy transfer.

Read full publication associated with this illustration

Categories: Scientific Illustrations
Tags:

Related Posts

A trio of illustrated panels depicts the soil microbial communities in three treatments of a long-term warming experiment north of Flagstaff, Arizona. The panels are labeled in gray text, left to right: control, short-term warming, long-term warming. The control treatment, far left, depicts bacteria, protists, and other microorganisms identified by sequencing the soil’s metagenome in yellow, orange, green, and blue, along with chains of available nutrients. Soil depicted in the center panel, which has undergone short-term warming, shows an increased abundance and diversity of microbes, some of which are growing, incorporating nutrients, and respiring carbon dioxide. The soil that has undergone long-term warming, imagined in the panel on the right, shows fewer microbial species and competitive relationships that are developing for control of the scarcer nutrients.

Does a warmer future favor microbial friend or foe? Ecoss researchers win $3.4M to study interactions in changing soil

In 2002, the Odyssey probe discovered evidence of past ice on Mars. The U.S. Congress authorized the Iraq War resolution. The Anaheim Angels won the World Series. And in a meadow 15 miles north of Read more…

image depicts an earth sliced into nine segments, each representing possible emissions scenarios from permafrost through the year 2100

Future emissions from ‘country of permafrost’ significant, must be factored into global climate targets

By the end of this century, permafrost in the rapidly warming Arctic will likely emit as much carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere as a large industrial nation, and potentially more than the U.S. Read more…

leshyk illustration antibiotic resistance

Ecology & Genomics offer new approaches to combat antibiotic resistance

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are widespread and are increasingly associated with human infections.  Inappropriate antibiotic use – both in people and in animals raised for food – drives the evolution of multi-drug-resistant pathogens and threatens a post-antibiotic era – one in Read more…