2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

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5/23/2019 | 2:15 PM - 2:30 PM | AQUIFER STONEFLIES (PLECOPTERA) ARE TOLERANT OF ANOXIA AND HYPOXIA COMPARED TO BENTHIC SPECIES | 250 AB

AQUIFER STONEFLIES (PLECOPTERA) ARE TOLERANT OF ANOXIA AND HYPOXIA COMPARED TO BENTHIC SPECIES

At least 7 stonefly species are widespread amphibionts in alluvial aquifers which contain highly heterogeneous habitats, including zones with low concentrations of dissolved oxygen. We conducted 92-hr oxygen tolerance experiments (anoxic and hypoxic conditions) on 2400 individual stonefly larvae obtained from aquifer and benthic sites in the Flathead River, Montana. We reduced oxygen concentrations to anoxia (0.0 mg/L) or hypoxia (0.5 mg/L), documented locomotor activity during and after oxygen drawdown, and measured survival rates over the course of the experiments. Aquifer species were active 31x longer in anoxia and 3x longer in hypoxia than benthic species. Notably Paraperla frontalis and Isocapnia spp – aquifer species - were ambulatory for up to 4 and 48 hours (respectively) of exposure to anoxia. Early-instar larvae were more tolerant than late-instars. Multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that aquifer species had significantly (P<0.001) higher probabilities of surviving than benthic species in anoxia and hypoxia. Tolerance to low oxygen and the ability to remain ambulatory in anoxia helps explain why amphibiotic stonefly species are notably abundant in alluvial aquifers where food webs are subsidized by methanotrophic resources produced in anoxic zones.

Invertebrate
Oxygen
Functional Ecology

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Presenters/Authors

Rachel Malison (), Flathead Lake Biological Station, The University of Montana, rachel.malison@umontana.edu;