Current riparian management objectives in the Pacific Northwest promote both
retention of existing conifers and conversion of hardwood-dominated areas to conifers.
Although understanding of relationships between riparian vegetation and salmonid
prey availability is growing, temporal variation in these relationships is poorly
understood. Seasonal fluxes in availability of aquatic and terrestrial invertebrate prey
for coastal cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarki clarki) were investigated by
estimating invertebrate biomass from aquatic (benthos and drift) and allochthonous
(terrestrial) sources in three watersheds in the Oregon Coast Range. To investigate the
influence of vegetation type on food sources, samples were collected in each
watershed from stream sections dominated by deciduous, conifer, and mixed
vegetation. During each sample period, diet was assessed by examining gut contents
of captured trout. Stream discharge appeared to be an influential factor regulating
seasonal fluxes of aquatic invertebrate biomass in the benthos and drift. Total allochthonous invertebrate biomass at deciduous and mixed vegetation sites (64 and
61 mg·m⁻²·day⁻¹, respectively) was almost 30% higher than at coniferous sites (45
mg·m⁻²·day⁻¹). Although aquatic insects dominated the total gut contents during this
study, prey from terrestrial origin was more common during summer and fall. These
results suggest that systematic removal of deciduous vegetation in riparian zones to
promote conifers may have unintended consequences on the food resources of coastal
cutthroat trout and the productivity of aquatic food webs in the Pacific Northwest. / Graduation date: 2004
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/26772 |
| Date | 19 December 2003 |
| Creators | Romero, Nicolas |
| Contributors | Gresswell, Robert E., Li, Judith L. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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