Sediment deposition from eroding peatlands alters headwater invertebrate biodiversity.

ABSTRACT: Land use and climate change are driving widespread modifications to the biodiverse and functionally unique headwaters of rivers. In temperate and boreal regions, many headwaters drain peatlands where land management and climate change can cause significant soil erosion and peat deposition in rivers. However, effects of peat deposition in river ecosystems remain poorly understood. We provide two lines of evidence-derived from sediment deposition gradients in experimental mesocosms (0-7.5 g/m² ) and headwaters (0.82-9.67 g/m² )-for the adverse impact of peat deposition on invertebrate community biodiversity. We found a consistent negative effect of sediment deposition across both the experiment and survey; at the community level, decreases in density (1956 to 56 individ

SUBMITTER: Brown LE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7380017 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature