Stable Isotope Evidence for Dietary Overlap between Alien and Native Gastropods in Coastal Lakes of Northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Tarebia granifera (Lamarck, 1822) is originally from South-East Asia, but has been introduced and become invasive in many tropical and subtropical parts of the world. In South Africa, T. granifera is rapidly invading an increasing number of coastal lakes and estuaries, often reaching very high population densities and dominating shallow water benthic invertebrate assemblages. An assessment of the feeding dynamics of T. granifera has raised questions about potential ecological impacts, specifically in terms of its dietary overlap with native gastropods.A stable isotope mixing model was used together with gut content analysis to estimate the diet of T. granifera and native gastropod populations in three different coastal lakes. Population density, available biomass of food and salinity were measured along transects placed over T. granifera patches. An index of isotopic (stable isotopes) dietary overlap (IDO, %) aided in interpreting interactions between gastropods. The diet of T. granifera was variable, including contributions from microphytobenthos, filamentous algae (Cladophora sp.), detritus and sedimentary organic matter. IDO was significant (>60%) between T. granifera and each of the following gastropods: Haminoea natalensis (Krauss, 1848), Bulinus natalensis (Küster, 1841) and Melanoides tuberculata (Müller, 1774). However, food did not appear to be limiting. Salinity influenced gastropod spatial overlap. Tarebia granifera may only displace native gastropods, such as Assiminea cf. ovata (Krauss, 1848), under salinity conditions below 20. Ecosystem-level impacts are also discussed.The generalist diet of T. granifera may certainly contribute to its successful establishment. However, although competition for resources may take place under certain salinity conditions and if food is limiting, there appear to be other mechanisms at work, through which T. granifera displaces native gastropods. Complementary stable isotope and gut content analysis can provide helpful ecological insights, contributing to monitoring efforts and guiding further invasive species research

The role of organisms in hyporheic processes : gaps in current knowledge, needs for future research and applications

Fifty years after the hyporheic zone was first defined (Orghidan, 1959), there are still gaps in the knowledge regarding the role of biodiversity in hyporheic processes. First, some methodological questions remained unanswered regarding the interactions between biodiversity and physical processes, both for the study of habitat characteristics and interactions at different scales. Furthermore, many questions remain to be addressed to help inform our understanding of invertebrate community dynamics, especially regarding the trophic niches of organisms, the functional groups present within sediment, and their temporal changes. Understanding microbial community dynamics would require investigations about their relationship with the physical characteristics of the sediment, their diversity, their relationship with metabolic pathways, their inter- actions with invertebrates, and their response to environmental stress. Another fundamental research question is that of the importance of the hyporheic zone in the global metabolism of the river, which must be explored in relation to organic matter recycling, the effects of disturbances, and the degradation of contaminants. Finally, the application of this knowledge requires the development of methods for the estimation of hydro- logical exchanges, especially for the management of sediment clogging, the optimization of self-purification, and the integration of climate change in environmental policies. The development of descriptors of hyporheic zone health and of new metrology is also crucial to include specific targets in water policies for the long-term management of the system and a clear evaluation of restoration strategies

A global analysis of terrestrial plant litter dynamics in non-perennial waterways

Perennial rivers and streams make a disproportionate contribution to global carbon (C) cycling. However, the contribution of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES), which sometimes cease to flow and can dry completely, is largely ignored although they represent over half the global river network. Substantial amounts of terrestrial plant litter (TPL) accumulate in dry riverbeds and, upon rewetting, this material can undergo rapid microbial processing. We present the results of a global research collaboration that collected and analysed TPL from 212 dry riverbeds across major environmental gradients and climate zones. We assessed litter decomposability by quantifying the litter carbon-to-nitrogen ratio and oxygen (O2) consumption in standardized assays and estimated the potential short-term CO2 emissions during rewetting events. Aridity, cover of riparian vegetation, channel width and dry-phase duration explained most variability in the quantity and decomposability of plant litter in IRES. Our estimates indicate that a single pulse of CO2 emission upon litter rewetting contributes up to 10% of the daily CO2 emission from perennial rivers and stream, particularly in temperate climates. This indicates that the contributions of IRES should be included in global C-cycling assessments

Depth-related effects on a meiofaunal community dwelling in the periphyton of a mesotrophic lake

Kreuzinger B, Schroeder F, Majdi N, Traunspurger W. Depth-related effects on a meiofaunal community dwelling in the periphyton of a mesotrophic lake. PLoS One. 2015;10(9): e0137793.Periphyton is a complex assemblage of micro- and meiofauna embedded in the organic matrix that coats most submerged substrate in the littoral of lakes. The aim of this study was to better understand the consequences of depth-level fluctuation on a periphytic community. The effects of light and wave disturbance on the development of littoral periphyton were evaluated in Lake Erken (Sweden) using an experimental design that combined in situ shading with periphyton depth transfers. Free-living nematodes were a major contributor to the meiofaunal community. Their species composition was therefore used as a proxy to distinguish the contributions of light- and wave-related effects. The periphyton layer was much thicker at a depth of 30 cm than at 200 cm, as indicated by differences in the amounts of organic and phototrophic biomass and meiofaunal and nematode densities. A reduction of the depth-level of periphyton via a transfer from a deep to a shallow location induced rapid positive responses by its algal, meiofaunal, and nematode communities. The slower and weaker negative responses to the reverse transfer were attributed to the potentially higher resilience of periphytic communities to increases in the water level. In the shallow littoral of the lake, shading magnified the effects of phototrophic biomass erosion by waves, as the increased exposure to wave shear stress was not compensated for by an increase in photosynthesis. This finding suggests that benthic primary production will be strongly impeded in the shallow littoral zones of lakes artificially shaded by construction or embankments. However, regardless of the light constraints, an increased exposure to wave action had a generally positive short-term effect on meiofaunal density, by favoring the predominance of species able to anchor themselves to the substrate, especially the Chromadorid nematode Punctodora ratzeburgensis

VIBRATION ALANALYSES OF SOME INORGANIC HALIDES CONTAINING OXYGEN OR SULFUR

Author Institution: Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, University of CaliforniaVibrational spectra will be discussed for the following molecules, together with applications to structure determinations and/or the calculation of force constants: (1) Metal oxide tetrafluorides: The infrared spectra of $MoOF_{4}$, $WOF_{4}$ and $ReOF_{4}$ vapors, obtained with a 10-m folded-path cell with metal mirrors, are consistent with only $C_{4v}$ symmetry. This is not the structure predicted by VSEPR theory and is further evidence for the influence of ligand repulsions in determining the stereochemistry of transition-metal compounds. (2) Other metal oxide halides: Infrared and Raman vapor spectra of permanganyl chloride ($MnO_{3}Cl$) and chromyl fluoride ($CrO_{2}F_{2}$) will be presented and discussed. (3) Thiophosphoryl fluoride: The controversial $P = S$ stretching frequency of $SPF_{3}$ has been unambiguously assigned from the vibrational spectrum of $^{34}SPF_{3}$. General quadratic force constants have been calculated and will be discussed

Regionalization of patterns of flow intermittence from gauging station records

Understanding large-scale patterns in flow intermittence is important for effective river management. The duration and frequency of zero-flow periods are associated with the ecological characteristics of rivers and have important implications for water resources management. We used daily flow records from 628 gauging stations on rivers with minimally modified flows distributed throughout France to predict regional patterns of flow intermittence. For each station we calculated two annual times series describing flow intermittence; the frequency of zero-flow periods (consecutive days of zero flow) in each year of record (FREQ; yr−1), and the total number of zero-flow days in each year of record (DUR; days). These time series were used to calculate two indices for each station, the mean annual frequency of zero-flow periods (mFREQ; yr−1), and the mean duration of zero-flow periods (mDUR; days). Approximately 20% of stations had recorded at least one zero-flow period in their record. Dissimilarities between pairs of gauges calculated from the annual times series (FREQ and DUR) and geographic distances were weakly correlated, indicating that there was little spatial synchronization of zero flow. A flow-regime classification for the gauging stations discriminated intermittent and perennial stations, and an intermittence classification grouped intermittent stations into three classes based on the values of mFREQ and mDUR. We used random forest (RF) models to relate the flow-regime and intermittence classifications to several environmental characteristics of the gauging station catchments. The RF model of the flow-regime classification had a cross-validated Cohen's kappa of 0.47, indicating fair performance and the intermittence classification had poor performance (cross-validated Cohen's kappa of 0.35). Both classification models identified significant environment-intermittence associations, in particular with regional-scale climate patterns and also catchment area, shape and slope. However, we suggest that the fair-to-poor performance of the classification models is because intermittence is also controlled by processes operating at scales smaller than catchments, such as groundwater-table fluctuations and seepage through permeable channels. We suggest that high spatial heterogeneity in these small-scale processes partly explains the low spatial synchronization of zero flows. While 20% of gauges were classified as intermittent, the flow-regime model predicted 39% of all river segments to be intermittent, indicating that the gauging station network under-represents intermittent river segments in France. Predictions of regional patterns in flow intermittence provide useful information for applications including environmental flow setting, estimating assimilative capacity for contaminants, designing bio-monitoring programs and making preliminary predictions of the effects of climate change on flow intermittence