A note on how stream ecosystems function.

Ok so this isn't actually about crabs, or marine ecosystems, but a little summary of some work I did in Alpine streams.

Back between 2012 and 2014, I spent many happy hours in alps, and many more in the basement of the University of Vienna, running an experiment to investigate how the erosion of clay minerals affects how stream ecosystems function.

The first paper from this work was accepted today to Geophysical Research Letters. it demonstrates that erosion of clay minerals changes the carbon and nitrogen cycles in streams.

The mechanisms: organic matter sticks to clay minerals, this stabilises the organic matter and makes it more resistant to microbial decay. Nitrogen-rich organic matter tends to be more sticky, and so harder to detach from the mineral particles.

This is a big problem for stream water bacterial communities, because they live suspended in the water, which is an open system. Its less of a problem at the streambed, because bacteria at the streamed live together with algae, and so can recycle nitrogen internally within their biofilm community.

Paper is available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GL0... but let me know if you want to read the full paper. I can send you a pdf if you are interested.

 

The River Continuum Concept: A classic idea in stream ecology.