Mason_et_al-2019-Earth_Surface_Processes_and_Landforms.pdf (2.16 MB)
The zoogeomorphology of case-building caddisfly: quantifying sediment use
journal contribution
posted on 2019-06-04, 09:57 authored by Richard Mason, Stephen Rice, Paul WoodPaul Wood, Matthew F. JohnsonCaddisfly (Trichoptera) larvae are an abundant and widespread aquatic insect group
characterised by the construction of silk structures, including nets and cases. Case building caddisfly have the potential to modify the sorting and mobility of sand and
fine gravel via; 1) case construction, resulting in altered sediment properties; 2)
transporting sediment incorporated into cases over the river bed and; 3) changing
the structure of river-beds via burrowing. To investigate these mechanisms, it is
necessary to understand the mass, size distribution and spatial variability of
sediment use by case-building caddisfly larvae.
We quantified the mineral sediment used by individuals and communities of case building caddisfly in 27 samples, from three sites on a gravel-bed stream. The mass
and size distribution of sediment in individual cases varied between taxa (mass =
0.001 – 0.83 g, D50 = 0.17 – 4 mm). The mean mass of sediment used by the
caddisfly community was 38 g m-2 and varied locally. Sediment use was
predominantly coarse sand (D50 = 1 mm). 64% of sediment use was attributable to
Agapetus fuscipes (Glossosomatidae).
Due to within-species variability in case mass, the abundance of most taxa, including
A. fuscipes, was only weakly associated with the mass of sediment used at the river
scale. Whilst the caddisfly community used a small percentage of the total sediment
available (average 2.99% of the 1 - 1.4 mm size fraction), A. fuscipes used more fine
sediment in their cases at sites where it was more available. Despite variability in
local habitat, all sites supported diverse case-building caddisfly communities utilising
mineral sediment. Consequently, geomorphological effects of case-building caddisfly
are potentially widespread. The results provide novel insights into the specific grain
sizes and quantities of fine sediment particles (g m-2) used by caddisfly larvae, which
represents an important step towards understanding their zoogeomorphic activities.
Funding
RM acknowledges a studentship funded by NERC CENTA, reference: NE/L002493/1.
History
School
- Social Sciences
Department
- Geography and Environment
Published in
Earth Surface Processes and LandformsVolume
44Pages
2510 – 2525Citation
MASON, R.J. ... et al., 2019. The zoogeomorphology of case-building caddisfly: quantifying sediment use. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 44, pp. 2510–2525.Publisher
John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Version
- VoR (Version of Record)
Rights holder
© The authorsPublisher 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/Acceptance date
2019-05-09Publication date
2019-07-15Copyright date
2019Notes
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.ISSN
0197-9337Publisher version
Language
- en