2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH
5/23/2019 | 11:30 AM - 11:45 AM | THERE’S NO DIVOT LIKE HOME: BENTHIC FORAGING FISH CREATE NOVEL HABITATS IN SOFT SEDIMENTS | 251 DE
THERE’S NO DIVOT LIKE HOME: BENTHIC FORAGING FISH CREATE NOVEL HABITATS IN SOFT SEDIMENTS
Ecosystem engineers can control the spatial and temporal distribution of resources and movement by engineers within an ecosystem distribute these engineering effects. Here we present evidence of ecosystem engineering by the Sonora sucker (Catostomus insignis), a dominant fish in streams of the southwestern United States, and show how cryptic movement patterns control heterogeneity in benthic substrates and functionally transform benthic habitats. Sonora suckers exhibit distinct diel movement patterns, spending daylight hours in refuge habitats (typically deep pools) while moving into shallow habitats at night to feed. Feeding by suckers creates substantial disturbance in soft sediments that are patchy in space and time. These disturbances moved up to 2.4 × 104 cm3 of sediment per square meter per week in locations that are up to hundreds of meters away from sucker daytime refuges and created depressional structures in mobile sediments (e.g, sand and silt) that persisted until further bioturbation. Our data indicate that cryptic movement by ecosystem engineers can distribute their effects in space and time generating heterogeneity in resources and suggest that habitat modifications restricting consumer movement may alter the impact of engineering activities.
- Geomorphology
- Movement
- Invertebrate
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Presenters/Authors
Michael Booth
(), University of Cincinnati, michael.booth@uc.edu;
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Nelson Hairston
(), Cornell University, ngh1@cornell.edu;
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Alexander Flecker
(), Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, asf3@cornell.edu;
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