Abstract
This study evaluates the effectiveness of community production and respiration measurements as monitoring tools for environmental impact evaluations and compares these data to community structural data.
In Prickly Pear Creek, Montana, production and respiration rates were determined for periphyton communities in control, impact and recovery reaches using colonized granite substrates and sealed plexiglas chambers. Values for gross primary productivity (GPP), community respiration (CR24), ash-free dry mass (AFDM) and chlorophyll a content (Chla) were obtained for each granite slab. Of these, AFDM, Chla and CR24 were statistically significant among sites (P≤0.01). Although mean values for GPP appeared to differ among reaches, statistical differences could not be inferred because of large variances associated with this measure. These data indicate that inherent variability may limit the use of community function measures in routine environmental monitoring. However, production/respiration methods provide valuable data about emergent properties of aquatic communities that cannot be derived from routine population censuses.
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Crossey, M.J., La Point, T.W. A comparison of periphyton community structural and functional responses to heavy metals. Hydrobiologia 162, 109–121 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00014533
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00014533