Vadher etal 2018HB.pdf (532.1 kB)
The duration of channel drying affects survival of Gammarus pulex (Amphipoda: Gammaridae) within subsurface sediments: an experimental flume study
journal contribution
posted on 2018-07-23, 13:34 authored by Atish N. Vadher, Jonathan MillettJonathan Millett, Rachel Stubbington, Paul WoodPaul WoodField studies have demonstrated that benthic fauna use hyporheic sediments during drying events in temporary rivers, but the factors influencing the survival of fauna in subsurface sediments remain poorly quantified. Laboratory mesocosm experiments were conducted to determine how the length of drying events (1, 7, 14 and 21 days) influenced the survivorship of Gammarus pulex (L.) (Amphipoda: Gammaridae). The water level was reduced to 5 cm below the substrate surface during drying experiments and held at 5 cm above the sediment surface during control experiments. The results demonstrate that G. pulex survivorship was reduced with increasing length of the experiment, particularly in the drying treatment compared to the control treatment. We show that G. pulex can persist in subsurface sediments for up to 21 days during surface drying. In view of interacting climatic drivers and water resource pressures that are increasing the spatial and temporal occurrence of streambed drying, our results have important implications for stream management. Our results also highlight the utility of mesocosm-based studies for elucidating the abiotic controls of macroinvertebrate survival during stream drying events.
Funding
Atish N. Vadher gratefully acknowledges the provision of a studentship from the School of Social, Political and Geographical Sciences at Loughborough University for funding this research.
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Geography and Environment
Published in
HydrobiologiaVolume
820Issue
1Pages
165 - 173Citation
VADHER, A.N. ... et al, 2018. The duration of channel drying affects survival of Gammarus pulex (Amphipoda: Gammaridae) within subsurface sediments: an experimental flume study. Hydrobiologia, 820 (1), pp.165-173.Publisher
Springer International Publishing © The AuthorsVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/Publication date
2018-06-11Notes
This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Springer under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ISSN
0018-8158eISSN
1573-5117Publisher version
Language
- en