2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH
5/24/2018 | 9:30 AM - 9:45 AM | FUNCTIONAL STABILITY DESPITE ADVERSE STRUCTURAL EFFECTS – A POTENTIAL HURDLE FOR THE USE OF LEAF LITTER DECOMPOSITION IN BIOMONITORING? | 321
FUNCTIONAL STABILITY DESPITE ADVERSE STRUCTURAL EFFECTS – A POTENTIAL HURDLE FOR THE USE OF LEAF LITTER DECOMPOSITION IN BIOMONITORING?
The paramount importance of leaf decomposition for energy provisioning in heterotrophic aquatic food webs suggests its use as functional variable informing biomonitoring in anthropogenically impacted systems. Potential adaptation of decomposer communities to and recovery from stress with regards to their functional performance, however, may compromise the use of leaf decomposition by masking adverse structural effects. To test for this assumption, we quantified the effects of fungicides and nutrients (four levels each) on the structural and functional plasticity of leaf-associated decomposer communities with differing exposure histories (pristine vs. pre-exposed) over 21 d. Microbial leaf decomposition (MLD) was quantified as functional response, whereas fungal community composition and species richness characterized structural changes. MLD by pristine microbes was reduced by up to 30% with increasing fungicide levels, whereas the pre-exposed microbes augmented MLD by up to 85% upon fungicide exposure. A pollution-induced community tolerance, supporting the dominance of few species with high breakdown efficacies, may explain the maintained functioning under stress. In support of our initial assumption, these findings question at least an easy-to-interpret outcome of the data when leaf decomposition is used for biomonitoring without simultaneous characterization of structural changes.
- Microbial
- Decomposition
- Ecotoxicology
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Presenters/Authors
Alexander Feckler
(), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, alexander.feckler@slu.se;
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Rebecca Bundschuh
(), University of Koblenz-Landau, bundschuh-r@uni-landau.de;
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Marco Konschak
(), University of Koblenz-Landau, konschak@uni-landau.de;
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Ralf Schulz
(), University of Koblenz-Landau, schulz@uni-landau.de;
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Jochen Zubrod
(), University of Koblenz-Landau, zubrod@uni-landau.de;
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Mirco Bundschuh
(), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, mirco.bundschuh@slu.se;
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