Poster Details
EFFECTS OF EXPERIMENTAL COVERING AND RESTORATION OF RIPARIAN GRASS ON TERRESTRIAL INVERTEBRATES SUPPLY AND AQUATIC ANIMAL COMMUNITIES
Destroying riparian grass can negatively influence on aquatic communities, but few studies have experimentally shown it in a natural stream. We experimentally covered riparian grass using transparent vinyl and compared the impact on aquatic animals to the control section that had no cover. We then subsequently restored the riparian grass by removing the cover. We sampled terrestrial invertebrates input, population densities of fish, odonates, and crustaceans, and fish gut contents. The results showed that the biomass of terrestrial invertebrates supplied from the riparian grass decreased significantly in the treatment sections than in the control. Accordingly, the number of species and biomass of fish and crustaceans significantly decreased in the treatment sections by approximately 50%. Furthermore, following restoring riparian grass by removing the vinyl cover resulted in bouncing the population density of the aquatic animals back to the original condition. Covering riparian grass also affected the foraging by fish that utilized less on terrestrial invertebrates in the treatments but more on benthic invertebrates. This study suggests that destruction of riparian grass negatively influences on aquatic animals via decreased terrestrial prey for fish as well as less refuge for odonates and crustaceans.
Tsubasa Hamashima (Primary Presenter/Author), Dept. Environmental Science and Technology, Meijo University, Japan, tbd@tbd.com;
Yoshinori Taniguchi (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Dept. Environmental Science & Technology, Meijo University, Japan, ytstone0727@gmail.com;