Grazing on epiphytes1
Open Access
- 1 January 1983
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Limnology and Oceanography
- Vol. 28 (1), 124-132
- https://doi.org/10.4319/lo.1983.28.1.0124
Abstract
A correlation was found between the seasonal epiphyte cycle in Lake Memphremagog (Québec‐Vermont), with a maximum in mid‐June, and the abundance of grazers (mainly oligochaetes and chironomids). Evidence for a cause and effect relationship was provided by exclosure‐enclosure experiments. When grazers were excluded epiphyte biomass did not decline as it did in the lake. Addition of grazers to a dense epiphyte cover resulted in a decline qualitatively and quantitatively similar to that in the lake. Grazing pressure, calculated from general empirical equations for aquatic deposit feeders, was of the required order of magnitude to explain the decline in epiphyte biomass.Because similar seasonal epiphyte cycles have been described elsewhere these findings should have a wider relevance.This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- In Situ Foraging Responses of Three Species of Littoral CladoceransEcological Monographs, 1981
- Primary production of algae growing on natural and artificial aquatic plants: A study of interactions between epiphytes and their substrate1Limnology and Oceanography, 1979
- Ingestion rate: An empirical model for aquatic deposit feeders and detritivoresOecologia, 1978
- Grazing Effects of Four Marine Intertidal Herbivores on the MicrofloraEcology, 1977
- Alkaline phosphatase activity in subtropical Central North Pacific waters using a sensitive fluorometric methodMarine Biology, 1972