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Cosgrove_Honors Thesis Final.pdf (408.59 KB)

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COMPARING AQUATIC INVERTEBRATE COMMUNITIES ON PIN OAK, COTTONWOOD, AND RED MAPLE LEAF LITTER IN VERNAL POOLS IN NORTHEASTERN OHIO

Cosgrove, Colleen
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1430765021

Abstract Details

2015, BS, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Biological Sciences.
Spring snowmelt fills vernal pool wetlands in northeast Ohio, where the decomposing leaf litter provides both shelter and food for aquatic invertebrates. Feeding by detritivorous invertebrates hastens the rate that leaves breakdown into fine particles. However, leaf chemistry affects invertebrate communities and leaf breakdown rates. I deployed mesh litter bags with red maple, pin oak and cottonwood leaves to compare litter decomposition rates and invertebrate colonization over a 4 week period in summer 2014. As I hypothesized leaf breakdown was fastest in red maple and slowest in pin oak. By the end of the study, 65% of red maple leaf dry weight remained but >75% of pin oak remained. Litter bags were colonized by 18 invertebrate taxa, and Asellidae were the most abundant invertebrates (56% of total) followed by Chironomidae (26% of total). Multivariate analyses showed pronounced differences in invertebrate communities between all three leaf types. This suggests that leaf chemistry affected invertebrate species assemblages. Surprisingly, there were no significant differences in invertebrate abundance and Shannon’s diversity among leaf types, and few taxa were indicator species on any leaf type. The multivariate analyses found a temporal change in the invertebrate communities, and communities differed between the first date (May 26) and later dates (June 1, June 7, and June 22). Therefore, differences in leaf chemistry probably affected invertebrate colonization soon after the litterbags were deployed, but the chemical cues may have declined with time.
Ferenc de Szalay (Advisor)
David Costello (Committee Member)
Reid Coffman (Committee Member)
Allison Smith (Committee Member)
42 p.
Ecology; Zoology

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Cosgrove, C. (2015). COMPARING AQUATIC INVERTEBRATE COMMUNITIES ON PIN OAK, COTTONWOOD, AND RED MAPLE LEAF LITTER IN VERNAL POOLS IN NORTHEASTERN OHIO [Undergraduate thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1430765021

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Cosgrove, Colleen. COMPARING AQUATIC INVERTEBRATE COMMUNITIES ON PIN OAK, COTTONWOOD, AND RED MAPLE LEAF LITTER IN VERNAL POOLS IN NORTHEASTERN OHIO. 2015. Kent State University, Undergraduate thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1430765021.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Cosgrove, Colleen. "COMPARING AQUATIC INVERTEBRATE COMMUNITIES ON PIN OAK, COTTONWOOD, AND RED MAPLE LEAF LITTER IN VERNAL POOLS IN NORTHEASTERN OHIO." Undergraduate thesis, Kent State University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ksuhonors1430765021

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2015, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License COMPARING AQUATIC INVERTEBRATE COMMUNITIES ON PIN OAK, COTTONWOOD, AND RED MAPLE LEAF LITTER IN VERNAL POOLS IN NORTHEASTERN OHIO by Colleen Cosgrove is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University Honors College and OhioLINK.