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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 59(6)

Nutrients and their duration of enrichment influence periphyton cover and biomass in rural and urban streams

Travis S. Elsdon A B C and Karin E. Limburg A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.

B Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories, School of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: travis.elsdon@adelaide.edu.au

Marine and Freshwater Research 59(6) 467-476 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF07085
Submitted: 19 April 2007  Accepted: 29 February 2008   Published: 19 June 2008

Abstract

Although it is well known that land use affects nutrient dynamics and algal growth in streams, the responses to different durations of nutrient supply are poorly understood. The associations of benthic (periphyton-dominated) biomass with concentrations of dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus in rural and urban streams in New York were quantified. Biomass was significantly greater (2-fold) in the urban compared with the rural stream, which was associated with differences in dissolved nutrients. Experimental field enrichment of nutrient concentrations and duration of exposure altered benthic periphyton. Increasing nutrients by 60–99% of ambient concentrations increased periphyton percentage cover and biomass. Periphyton abundance also increased with increasing duration of exposure to nutrients (2, 4 and 8 weeks); however, short-term pulses of nutrients (2 weeks) had no significant effect in the rural stream. These results indicate that effective management of nutrient delivery, by reducing time periods of high nutrient load, will minimise impacts to benthic environments.

Additional keywords: management, nitrogen, phosphorus, urbanisation, watershed.


Acknowledgements

We thank M. Ramsey and R. Oliveira Monteiro who helped with experimental work, D. Lyons, E. Menvielle and C. Hotaling for nutrient analyses, and V. Collins, C. Landis, Y. Munzimi, J. Popoli, C. Whritenour and A. Willson, who helped with sample collections. Research funding and support for T.S.E. was provided in full by a National Science Foundation grant to K.E.L. at SUNY–ESF (DEB-0238121). Manuscript preparation was done, in part, while T.S.E. was supported by an ARC Postdoctoral Fellowship. We thank C. J. Walsh, H. Hillebrand, D. Swaney, A. Irving, anonymous reviewers and Andrew Boulton for providing constructive comments on the manuscript.


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