Shifts in leaf litter breakdown along a forest-pasture-urban gradient in Andean streams.

ABSTRACT: Tropical montane ecosystems of the Andes are critically threatened by a rapid land-use change which can potentially affect stream variables, aquatic communities, and ecosystem processes such as leaf litter breakdown. However, these effects have not been sufficiently investigated in the Andean region and at high altitude locations in general. Here, we studied the influence of land use (forest-pasture-urban) on stream physico-chemical variables (e.g., water temperature, nutrient concentration, and pH), aquatic communities (macroinvertebrates and aquatic fungi) and leaf litter breakdown rates in Andean streams (southern Ecuador), and how variation in those stream physico-chemical variables affect macroinvertebrates and fungi related to leaf litter breakdown. We found that pH, water temperatur

SUBMITTER: Iniguez-Armijos C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4979712 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature