Life histories, diets, and secondary production of Odonata along a temperature gradient on the Copper River Delta, Alaska

Description

<p> Dragonflies (Odonata: Epiprocta) and damselflies (Odonata: Zygoptera) are a conspicuous aspect of the biota in ponds on southcentral Alaska's Copper River Delta (CRD). Odonate densities, secondary production, and diets were assessed in sixteen ponds classified by delta region (east vs. west) and landscape type (outwash plain (OP) vs uplifted marsh (UM)). </p><p> <i>Enallagma boreale</i> (Coenagrionidae) comprised 48.5% of collected odonates. <i>Leucorrhinia hudsonica</i> (Libellulidae) and <i>Aeshna juncea</i> (Aeshnidae) comprised 36.6% and 10.4% of collected odonates, respectively. <i>L. hudsonica</i> densities and secondary production were significantly higher (p&lt;0.001) in west UM ponds than in other pond types. Ostracods (Ostracoda) and water boatmen (Corixidae) dominated west OP <i>A. juncea</i> diets. Midge larvae (Chironomidae) dominated <i>A. juncea</i> diets in remaining pond types, occurring in 68% of foreguts. 27% of <i>A. juncea</i> foreguts demonstrated intraguild predation, and 6% of foreguts demonstrated cannibalism. Foreguts containing threespine stickleback (<i>Gasterosteus aculeatus</i>) revealed <i>A. juncea's</i> apex predator role in CRD ponds.</p>

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Tags

Biology, Ecology

Additional Fields

Identifer	oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:1583231
Date	17 February 2015
Creators	Furlan, Nicole E.
Publisher	Loyola University Chicago
Source Sets	ProQuest.com
Language	English
Detected Language	English
Type	thesis