Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T05:26:26.610Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Coarse particulate organic matter in the interstitial zone of three French headwater streams

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 July 2012

Get access

Abstract

Headwater woodland streams are primarily heterotrophic: they receive substantial inputs of organic matter from the riparian vegetation, while autochthonous primary production is generally low. A substantial part of leaf litter entering running waters may be buried in the streambed because of flooding and sediment movement. Although the general significance of the hyporheic zone for stream metabolism has been reported early, organic matter storage within the sediment of streams has received less attention, with most studies only quantifying accumulations at the streambed surface and ignoring other stream compartments. In the present study, the amounts of three fractions of coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM; >16, 4–16 and 1–4 mm) were determined in late autumn and early spring in the interstitial and benthic zones of three headwater streams of the Montagne Noire (South-Western France) differing in their substratum grain size. Our findings demonstrated that the total CPOM content in the interstitial zone can be much (up to one order of magnitude) higher than at the sediment surface. The sandy bottomed stream exhibited a higher amount of CPOM (whatever the size fraction) than the two other streams, suggesting that the sediment particle size may be a major determinant of CPOM storage. Given the large amount of organic matter stored in the interstitial zone, this compartment may play an important role for the carbon turnover and associated trophic dynamics in the stream ecosystem.

Keywords

Organic matterhyporheic zoneriver sedimentheadwater streamlitter breakdown
Type
Research Article
Information
Annales de Limnologie - International Journal of Limnology , Volume 48 , Issue 3 , 2012 , pp. 303 - 313
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baxter, C., Hauer, R.F. and Woessner, W.W., 2003. Measuring groundwater–stream water exchange: new techniques for installing minipiezometers and estimating hydraulic conductivity. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc., 132, 493–502.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benfield, E.F., 1997. Comparisons of litterfall input to streams. J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc., 16, 104–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blott, S.J. and Pye, K., 2001. Gradistat: A grain size distribution and statistics package for the analysis of unconsolidated sediments. Earth Surf. Proc. Land., 26, 1237–1248.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boulton, A.J., 2000. River ecosystem health down under: assessing ecological condition in riverine groundwater zones in Australia. Ecosyst. Health, 6, 108–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boulton, A., Datry, T., Kasahara, T., Mutz, M. and Stanford, J., 2010. Ecology and management of the hyporheic zone: stream–groundwater interactions of running waters and their floodplains. J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc., 29, 26–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bretschko, G., 1991. The limnology of a low order alpine gravel stream (Ritrodat-Lunz study area, Austria). Verh. Internat. Verein. Limnol., 24, 1908–1912.Google Scholar
Bretschko, G. and Moser, H., 1993. Transport and retention of matter in riparian ecotones. Hydrobiologia, 251, 95–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brunke, M. and Gonser, T., 1997. The ecological significance of exchange processes between rivers and groundwater. Freshwater Biol., 37, 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cornut, J., Elger, A., Lambrigot, D., Marmonier, P. and Chauvet, E., 2010. Early stages of leaf decomposition are mediated by aquatic fungi in the hyporheic zone of woodland streams. Freshwater Biol., 55, 2541–2556.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crocker, M.T. and Meyer, J.L., 1987. Interstitial dissolved organic carbon in sediments of a southern Appalachian headwater stream. J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc., 6, 159–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, K.W., 1962. An evaluation of some techniques for the collection and analysis of benthic samples with special emphasis on lotic waters. Am. Midl. Nat., 67, 477–504.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cummins, K.W., Sedell, J.R., Swanson, F.J., Minshall, G.W., Fisher, S.G., Cushing, C.E., Petersen, R.C. and Vannote, R.L., 1983. Organic matter budgets for stream ecosystems: problems in their evaluation. In: Barnes, J.R. and Minshall, G.W. (eds.), Stream Ecology. Application and Testing of General Ecological Theory, Plenum Press, New York, 299–353.Google Scholar
Cummins, K.W., Wilzbach, M.A., Gates, D.M., Perry, J.B. and Taliaferro, W.B., 1989. Shredders and riparian vegetation. Bioscience, 39, 24–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Folk, R.L. and Ward, W.C., 1957. Brazos River bar: a study in the significance of grain size parameters. J. Sediment. Petrol., 27, 3–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gessner, M.O. and Chauvet, E., 1994. Importance of microfungi in controlling breakdown rates of leaf litter. Ecology, 75, 1807–1817.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibert, J., Dole-Olivier, M.-J., Marmonier, P. and Vervier, P., 1990. Surface water-groundwater ecotones. In: Naiman, R.J. and Décamps, H. (eds.), The Ecology and Management of Aquatic-Terrestrial Ecotones, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Paris and Parthenon Publishers, Carnforth, UK, 199–226.Google Scholar
Godbout, L. and Hynes, H.B.N., 1982. The three-dimensional distribution of the fauna in a single riffle in a stream in Ontario. Hydrobiologia, 97, 87–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graça, M.A.S., 2001. The role of invertebrates on leaf litter decomposition in streams – a review. Int. Rev. Hydrobiol., 86, 383–393.3.0.CO;2-D>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grimm, N.B. and Fisher, S.G., 1984. Exchange between interstitial and surface waters: implications for stream metabolism and nutrient cycling. Hydrobiologia, 111, 219–228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herbst, G.N., 1979. Detrital leaf dynamics in a lowland forest stream. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Wisconson, Madison, WI, USA, 191 p.
Herbst, G.N., 1980. Effects of burial on food value and consumption of leaf detritus by aquatic invertebrates in a lowland forest stream. Oikos, 35, 411–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hieber, M. and Gessner, M.O., 2002. Contribution of stream detritivores, fungi, and bacteria to leaf breakdown based on biomass estimates. Ecology, 83, 1026–1038.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) (2007) Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of the Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
Jones, J.B., 1997. Benthic organic matter storage in streams: influence of detrital import and export, retention mechanisms, and climate. J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc., 16, 109–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, J.B., Fisher, S.G. & Grimm, N.B., 1995. Vertical hydrologic exchange and ecosystem metabolism in a Sonoran Desert stream. Ecology, 76, 942–952.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaushik, N.K. and Hynes, H.B.N., 1971. The fate of the dead leaves that fall into streams. Arch. Hydrobiol., 68, 465–515.Google Scholar
Keller, E.A. and Swanson, F.J., 1979. Effects of large organic material on channel form and fluvial processes. Earth Surf. Process., 4, 361–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leichtfried, M., 1985. Organic matter in gravel streams (Project Ritrodat-Lunz). Verh. Internat. Verein. Limnol., 22, 2058–2062.Google Scholar
Leichtfried, M., 1988. Bacterial substrates in gravel beds of a second order alpine stream (Project Ritrodat-Lunz). Verh. Internat. Verein. Limnol., 23, 1325–1332.Google Scholar
Malmqvist, B., Nilsson, L.M. and Svensson, B.S., 1978. Dynamics of detritus in a small stream in southern Sweden and its influence on the distribution of the bottom animal communities. Oikos, 31, 3–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maridet, L., Wasson, J.-G. & Phillippe, M., 1992. Vertical distribution of fauna in the bed sediment of three running water sites: influence of physical and trophic factors. Regul. Rivers: Res. Manage., 7, 45–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maridet, L., Phillippe, M., Wasson, J.-G. and Mathieu, J., 1996. Spatial and temporal distribution of macroinvertebrates and trophic variables within the bed sediment of three streams differing by their morphology and riparian vegetation. Arch. Hydrobiol., 136, 41–64.Google Scholar
Maridet, L., Philippe, M., Wasson, J.-G. and Mathieu, J., 1997. Seasonal dynamics and storage of particulate organic matter within bed sediment of three streams with contrasted riparian vegetation and morphology. In: J., Gibert, J., Mathieu and F., Fournier (eds.), Groundwater/Surface Water Ecotones: Biological and Hydrological Interactions and Management Options, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 68–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Metzler, G.M. and Smock, L.A., 1990. Storage and dynamics of subsurface detritus in a sandbottomed stream. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci., 47, 588–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minshall, G.W., Petersen, R.C., Cummins, K.W., Bott, T.L., Kenneth, W., Sedell, J.R., Cushing, C.E., and Vannote, R.L., 1983. Interbiome Comparison of Stream Ecosystem Dynamics. Ecol. Monogr., 53, 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Naegeli, M.W., Hartmann, U., Meyer, E.I. and Uehlinger, U., 1995. POM-dynamics and community respiration in the sediments of a floodprone prealpine river (Necker, Switzerland). Arch. Hydrobiol., 133, 339–347.Google Scholar
Newbold, J.D., Elwood, J.W., O'Neill, R.V., and Van Winkle, W., 1981. Measuring nutrient spiralling in streams. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci., 38, 860–863.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newbold, J.D., Mulholland, P.J., Elwood, J.W. and O'Neill, R.V., 1982. Organic carbon spiralling in stream ecosystems. Oikos, 38, 266–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orghidan, T., 1959. Ein neuer Lebensraum des unterirdischen Wassers: der hyporheische Biotop. Arch. Hydrobiol., 55, 392–414.Google Scholar
Rounick, J.S. and Winterbourn, M.J., 1983. Leaf processing in 2 contrasting beech forest streams – effects of physical and biotic factors on litter breakdown. Arch. Hydrobiol., 96, 448–474.Google Scholar
Schwoerbel, J., 1961. Über die Lebensbedingungen und die Besiedlung des hyporheischen Lebensraumes. Arch. Hydrobiol. Suppl., 25, 182–214.Google Scholar
Schwoerbel, J., 1964. Die Wassermilben (Hydrachnellae und Limnohalacaridae) als Indikatoren einer biozonotischen Gliederung von Breg und Brigach sowie der obersten Donau. Arch. Hydrobiol. Suppl., 27, 386–417.Google Scholar
Short, R.A. and Ward, J.V., 1981. Benthic detritus dynamics in a mountain stream. Ecography, 4, 32–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smock, L.A., 1990. Spatial and temporal variation in organic matter storage in low-gradient, headwater streams. Arch. Hydrobiol., 118, 169–184.Google Scholar
Smock, L.A., Metzler, G.M. and Gladden, J.E., 1989. Role of debris dams in the structure and functioning of low-gradient headwater streams. Ecology, 70, 764–775.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smock, L.A., Smith, L.C., Jones, J.B. and Hooper, S.M., 1994. Effects of drought and a hurricane on a coastal headwater stream. Arch. Hydrobiol., 131, 25–38.Google Scholar
Sobczak, W.V., Hedin, L.O., and Klug, M.J., 1998. Relationships between bacterial productivity and organic carbon at a soil-stream interface. Hydrobiologia, 386, 45–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
StatSoft Inc., 2001. Statistica 6.0: Electronic Statistics Textbook. Available at: http://www.statsoft.com/textbook/stathome. html
Strayer, D.L., May, S.E., Nielsen, P., Wollheim, W. and Hausam, S., 1997. Oxygen, organic matter, and sediment granulometry as controls on hyporheic animal communities. Arch. Hydrobiol., 140, 131–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suberkropp, K., 1998. Microorganisms and organic matter processing. In: R.J., Naiman and R.E., Bilby (eds.), River Ecology and Management: Lessons from the Pacific Coastal Ecoregion, Springer-Verlag, New York, 120–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tank, J.L., Rosi-Marshall, E.J., Griffiths, N.A., Entrekin, S.A. and Stephen, M.L., 2010. A review of allochthonous organic matter dynamics and metabolism in streams. J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc., 29, 118–146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Triska, F.J., Kennedy, V.C., Avanzino, R.J., Zellweger, G.W. and Bencala, K.E., 1989. Retention and transport of nutrients in a third-order stream in northwestern California: hyporheic processes. Ecology, 70, 1893–1905.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vannote, R.L., Minshall, G.W., Cummins, K.W., Sedell, J.R. and Cushing, C.E., 1980. The river continuum concept. Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci., 37, 130–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vervier, P., Gibert, J., Marmonier, P. and Dole-Olivier, M.-J., 1992. A perspective on the permeability of the surface freshwater-groundwater ecotone. J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc., 11, 93–102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, R., Schmidt, H.H. and Marxsen, J., 1993. The hyporheic habitat of the Breitenbach, spatial structure and physicochemical conditions as a basis for benthic life. Limnologica, 23, 285–294.Google Scholar
Webster, J.R., 1975. Analysis of potassium and calcium dynamics in stream ecosystems on three southern Appalachian watersheds of contrasting vegetation, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Georgia, Athens.
Webster, J.R. and Benfield, E.F., 1986. Vascular plant breakdown in freshwater ecosystems. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst., 17, 567–594.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, J.R. and Meyer, J.L., 1997. Organic matter budgets for streams: a synthesis. J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc., 16, 141–161.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, J.R. and Patten, B.C., 1979. Effects of watershed perturbation on stream potassium and calcium dynamics. Ecol. Monogr., 49, 51–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Webster, J.R., Benfield, E.F., Golladay, S.W., Hill, B.H., Hornick, L.E., Kazmierczak, R.F. and Perry, W.E., 1987. Experimental studies of physical factors affecting seston transport in streams. Limnol. Oceanogr., 32, 848–863.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, D.S., 1993. Perspectives on defining and delineating hyporheic zones. J. N. Am. Benthol. Soc., 12, 61–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, D.D. and Hynes, H.B.N., 1974. The occurrence of benthos deep in the substratum of a stream. Freshwater Biol., 4, 233–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar