2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

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5/26/2021 | 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM | Large herbivorous wildlife and livestock alter the relative importance of different sources of carbon for food webs in African savanna rivers. | Virtual Platform

Large herbivorous wildlife and livestock alter the relative importance of different sources of carbon for food webs in African savanna rivers.

In this study, we challenge existing theoretical concepts on energy sources and flow in riverine food webs in the Mara River, which is an African montane-savanna river known to receive large subsidy fluxes of terrestrial carbon and nutrients mediated by large mammalian herbivores (LMH). Using stable carbon (?13C) and nitrogen (?15N) isotopes, we identified spatial patterns of the relative importance of allochthonous carbon from C3 and C4 plants (woody vegetation and grasses, respectively) and autochthonous carbon from periphyton for macroinvertebrates in the river. Sites were selected in different stream sizes (orders 1 to 7) in various catchment land uses and receiving different loading rates of organic matter and nutrients by LMH (livestock and hippopotamus). The importance of different sources of carbon along the river did not follow predictions of RCC or RPM models. Notably, C4 carbon was important for macroinvertebrates in rivers inhabited by hippos, while autochthonous carbon was a major source of energy for macroinvertebrates, even in low order forested streams. Our results show that replacing wildlife (hippos) with livestock shifts river systems towards autochthony as opposed to reliance on allochthonous inputs of C4 carbon through a detrital pathway.

Resource subsidies
Organic matter
Food webs

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Presenters/Authors

FRANK MASESE (), UNIVERSITY OF ELDORET, f.masese@gmail.com;