Authors: Thomas F Waters
Publish Date: 1981/03/01
Volume: 78, Issue: 2, Pages: 169-175
Abstract
Stream invertebrate drift below the cave source of South Branch Creek Minnesota generally increased rapidly Ephemeroptera and Trichoptera increased rapidly and then decreased at the lower stations to 430 m below the cave Chironomidae drift in high numbers but low biomass because of their small size increased fairly rapidly and leveled out at the lowermost stations Gastropods increased slowly below the cave reached a maximum then decreased somewhat at the lowermost station Drifting oligochaetes small in size but in very large numbers increased more slowly below the cave and appeared not to have reached a maximum at the lowermost station It was concluded that in general drift increases fairly rapidly below the stream origin and fluctuates in the upper reaches probably reflecting benthic population abundance and local ecological conditions before attaining equilibria downstream rather than increasing linearly due to cumulative effects
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