Temperate Deciduous Forests & Mississippi River

Alfisols

deciduous forest soils, typically rich in nutrients and organic matter from annual leaf inputs

\- soil richness contributed to forest conversion to agriculture, with causing effects on soil productivity

\- replacement of nutrient generating processes with fertilizers; organic, then inorganic → nutrients, micronutrients, no contribution to soil structure

\- old-growth of deciduous forests essentially gone, secondary forests still cover large portions of the eastern U.S.

Amphipoda - shredder

contribute to nutrient recycling and provide high-quality food for a variety of animals

Beetles (Coleoptera): 

larvae primarily wander the stream bottom scavenging for dead organisms, detritus, or other food particles that get lodged between rocks or in deep pools.

detritus

waste or debris of any kind

Bergman’s Rule

The more North a population of native deer are, their antlers get bigger

Brook Charr

* native TDF trout
* usually wait for food to drift by (drift feeding)
* can be anadromous in coastal streams
* sensitive to changes in water quality
* extirpated from many low-pH streams (Al3+ toxicity)
* started to decline due to Rainbow Trout, so Brook Charr would swim to headstreams not watersheds

Brown Trout

* widespread stocking has reduced the distribution of Brown Trout in many eastern streams to small headwater reaches
* maintaining/restoring native Brown Trout is a conservation priority in several states

Stocking

raising fish in hatcheries and then releasing them into waters that already have some wild fish

Buffering capacity of water

water’s ability to get the pH the same even though other acids and bases are added

The primary buffering system in freshwater is the **bicarbonate buffering system**

Caddisflies (Trichoptera)

* considered to be a shredder and collector


* shreds material then uses that to make “armor” to protect from predators
* those that collect do the same but they build with the items they find not shred

Canopy layer

* made up of the overlapping leaves and branches of the trees, usually 25-40m
* usually interrupts 15-30% of water during a rainfall> water evaporates before reaching the soil

Co-evolution

* when two or more species reciprocally affect each other's evolution through the process of natural selection
* mussels start as a parasite so they would attach to fish to survive> gaining adaptations that allow bypass of the fish's innate immune system

**Collateral damage during harvesting:** 

* lead to Reduced Impact Logging (RIL) which was beneficial
* careful road planning
* tree-felling directions (cut a tree so it falls in the direction you plan)
* vine removal

CPOM, FPOM, DOM

* coarse particulate organic matter (CPOM)
* fine particulate organic matter (FPOM)
* dissolved organic matter (DOM)
* make up the food web in headwater streams

Cutthroat Trout

trout that has been restored using techniques like barriers, and rotenone (piscicide)

Decapoda (crayfish important)

* in the shredder group
* crawfish have claws, which makes it easier to shred
* crawfish strongly influenced macro-invertebrate numbers and leaf litter breakdown

Dissolved Oxygen (DO)

* is one of the most important water quality parameters in freshwater systems and has become an increasingly important concern in several marine systems around the world.

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* DO levels are inversely related to temperature,
* as temperature goes up, DO levels go down, as warm water cannot hold as much oxygen as cold water

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* Oxygen does not dissolve easily in water, ranging from 0-14.6 mg/l.

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* we rarely see DO levels over 10 mg/l in natural systems

Dobsonflies (Megaloptera)

* considered to be predators
* larvae control the populations of aquatic invertebrates by consuming them

Dragonflies (Odonata) and Damselflies (Odonata)

considered to be the predators

Drift-feeding

* Wait for food to drift by
* fish that drift feed are considered predators

Edge species

* species that tend to eat or dwell on the edge of the forest

example of edge species

white-tailed deer

Endangered Colorado River fishes

* Colorado Pikeminnow
* Bonytail
* Razorback Sucker
* Flannelmouth Sucker

Colorado Pikeminnow, Bonytail, Razorback Sucker, Flannelmouth sucker

all endangered but are experiencing restoration using techniques like;

* **migration barriers** (prevent recolonization)
* **piscicide**
* **restocking** (breeding and releasing the offsprings)
* **genetic identification** (allows fishers to see how many strains of one fish there are)
* **culture** (managing fish and their environment while in captivity)

Evapotranspiration

* signifies the amount of rainfall that is lost to the processes of:
* evaporation (mostly from the ground)
* transpiration (movement of water from the roots through leaf stomata)
* (often used in forest and watershed biology) **Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration**

**Act – or Pittman-Robertson Act:**

Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act – or Pittman-Robertson Act

* passed by Congress in 1937 to provide funding for the restoration and management of sport birds and mammals.
* Funds for this Act are collected in the Department of the Treasury from:
* an 11% excise tax paid by manufacturers on sporting arms, ammunition, and archery equipment
* a 10% tax on handguns.

Flashy hydrograph

* depicts sharp vertical jumps and equally steep vertical declines
* river discharge increases rapidly over a short period of time, indicating rainwater reaches the river very quickly. This means the river is more likely to flood.


* higher elevation would imply lower temperatures, less evapotranspiration, greater rainfall, steeper slopes, and shallow soils → greater runoff

Forested versus urban stream hydrographs

* rainwater gradually builds and either absorbs into the soil or run off (not flashy though)
* flashy is rather quick and leaves no time for the water to absorb into the soil> river could flood

Functional feeding groups

shredders, collector/gatherers, collector/filterers, predators

shredders

* important first step in organic processing
* poor food source


* create small organic particles colonized by bacteria and \n fungi, “peanut butter on the cracker”


* (think crawfish)

Collector/gatherers

* search for enriched organic particles as energy source
* (think crane fly/ mosquito hawk)

Collector/ filterers

* trap food particles carried by the current
* (black flies)

Predators

* take advantage of herbivore production
* invertebrates usually active search predators
* fishes include searchers and drift-feeders
* (dragonflies)

Glochidia

* what mussel embryos develop to

(they are parasitic)

Ground layer

* mosses, lichens

(any vegetation on bottom of trees)

Groundwater

* when groundwater and rainfall collects > percolation (slow passage of a liquid through a filtering medium) occurs
* groundwater is important for waterflow in headstreams

Hardwoods

* wood type deciduous forest contain
* used to make furniture and musical instruments

Herbaceous layer

* consists of grasses and forbs and ferns
* non-woody plants without a perennial stem,
* usually goes to 1 m

High-grading problem with selective harvesting

genetic selection prefers untouched trees

(un-harvested sub-optimal trees)

Hydrology

* how water moves
* TDF has a complex hydrology -> increased biodiversity and productivity
* can be altered from watershed development
* when a combination of water quality and hydrology changes -> higher order streams lower in the watershed are affected

Inorganic fertilizer

* nutrients/ micronutrients
* no contribution to soil structure

Interception

common when rain falls on a forest -> leaves and branches intercepts the rain and makes it fall to the ground slower

Intermittent (ephemeral) stream

* cease to flow every year or at least twice every five years
* aquifer development could could affect headwater stream ecosystems

Key deer

* distinct sub species to the native white-tailed deer
* declined to 25 individuals in 1940 due to the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act -> National Key Deer Refuge established in 1950
* 800 by 2008

Mayflies (Ephemeroptera)

* collector/gather
* move nutrients around which maintains other aquatic communities

**Migration barrier for trout restoration**

limit recolonization of restored stream reaches (**kept the stream native.. No invasive species**)

Multiple-Use Sustained Yield Act

* fostered from U.S. Forest Service (1903) and the U.S. Park Service (1916)
* important federal legislation that improved environmental conditions for White-tailed deer

National Wildlife Refuge System

* established in 1903 (Roosevelt) at Pelican Island
* consistent growth through the 20th century;
* >560 National Wildlife Refuges in operation today
* aims to conserve wildlife

Oak, maple, elm, hickory common trees

the characteristic hardwood trees (make furniture or instruments) in TDF

Old-growth forests

* forests that have developed over a long period of time..essentially free from catastrophic disturbances
* old growth in deciduous forests are essentially gone

Organic fertilizer

rich in nutrients from leaves

Perennial stream

usually gets discharge (volume of water moving down a stream) year-round

Piscicide

* poison that kills fish
* (Rotenone)

Quality Deer Management (QDM)

non-profit wildlife conservation organization dedicated to ensuring the future of white-tailed deer, wildlife habitat, and our nation's hunting heritage

Rainbow trout

* a large trout native to the Pacific seaboard of North America
* It has been widely introduced elsewhere, both as a farmed food fish and as a sporting fish.
* Most remain in streams, but some migrate to lakes and some to the sea
* caused problems with Brook Char

Reduced impact logging (RIL)

beneficial; careful road planning, tree-felling directions, vine removal

Rotenone

* one of two piscicides approved for use in the U.S
* It is derived from a family of S. American plants
* interferes with fish mitochondrial function
* was used to kill invasive fish in headwater streams and restore Native Brook Trout

Ruminant

* an even-toed ungulate mammal that chews the cud regurgitated from its rumen.
* cattle, sheep, antelopes, deer, giraffes, and their relatives
* have 4-chambered stomachs

Runoff, infiltration, percolation

* **Runoff**- the movement of landwater to the oceans (slope/soil type/ how complex the ground is \[rugosisty\])
* chiefly in the form of rivers, lakes, and streams;
* consists of precipitation that neither evaporates, transpires nor penetrates the surface to become groundwater
* **Infiltration**-into,
* **Percolation**-down through

Scrapers

* adapted for feeding on periphyton (biofilm)
* (algae, diatoms, bacteria, draped organic particles)

Secondary forests

* a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest..until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident
* Still cover a large portion of the eastern U.S.

Shade-tolerant trees

* trees that can grow in the shade


* are produced in uneven aged management

Shrub layer

* includes both shrubby vegetation and seedling trees
* grow to 3 m

Snags

* standing dead trees that contribute significantly to forest habitats for wildlife.
* It has been estimated that snag habitat provides cover, food, and breeding habitat to over 1,000 species in the U.S.

Softwoods

* low density wood fibers and used for structural lumber \n ex: coniferous trees

Stoneflies (Plecoptera)

* shredder/predator
* about 2,000 species of insects
* the adults of which have long antennae, weak, chewing mouthparts, and two pairs of membranous wings
* the nymph resembles the adult but lacks wings and may have external gills on various parts of its body
* The nymph feeds on plants, decaying organic matter, and other insects;
* the nymphal stage lasts from one to four years
* and the adults live several weeks

Stream baseflow

* results from precipitation that infiltrates into the soil and eventually moves through the soil to the stream channel
* particularly important in many streams for maintaining baseflow as well as stream temperatures and gravel spawning beds (salmonids)

Stream discharge (volume; velocity x cross sectional area)

* stream discharge is based on the volume of water
* when the discharge is high, velocity is high as well (more damage)

Stream hydrograph

* rainfall event shows through characteristic discharge (volume) through time
* can be reflect human influence on water

Stream order

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Subsurface flow of rainfall

* depending on slope and soil composition
* infiltrated water can move downslope to a stream channel in a relatively quick process aka subsurface flow of rainfall

Throughfall and stemflow – effective

rainfall

* **Throughfall**: after rainfall -> un-intercepted drips
* **Stemflow**: gravity, together it’s called effective rainfall and is available for runoff (slope, soil type, rugosity, etc.)
* infiltration (into) and percolation (down through)

Traditional deer management

* Protection of females with buck only harvest
* polygynous species makes this management approach problematic for controlling population size

Transpiration

* movement of water from the roots through the leaf stomata
* low humidity/higher temperatures and greater wind speeds tend to increase transpiration rates thus reducing runoff to the stream

True flies (Diptera)

collector-gathers

Understory layer

* 3 -25 m
* young dominant trees
* smaller species

Uneven-aged management

* the result of selective harvesting and creates shade-tolerant trees
* habitat diversity and minimizes erosion
* results from selective harvesting

U.S. Forest Service

* 1903 (Roosevelt and Pinchot) improved land management and critical habitat for White tailed deer
* fostered important federal legislation that improved environmental conditions for WTD,
* (Multiple-Use Sustained Yield Act)

U.S. Park Service

* 1916 improved land management and critical habitat for WTD
* fostered important federal legislation that improved environmental conditions for WTD,
* e.g., Multiple-Use Sustained Yield Act

Variable retention harvesting

* an approach to harvesting based on the retention of structural elements or biological legacies, harvesting preferred,
* maintains age diversity, snags coarse woody debris, and genetically superior trees.

Water yield to streams

* in coniferous forest water yields to streams with extensive clearcutting activity -> water yield to streams increases substantially
* less so in deciduous forests (less intensive harvesting)

Wetland Reserve Program

* was a major land retirement and habitat restoration/conservation program established by the **1990 Farm Bill.**
* continued a major paradigm shift in the U.S. that began in the 1970s
* whereby the goals of federal funding programs shifted from converting freshwater wetlands to agricultural croplands to protecting and enhancing wetlands on private land.

White-tailed Deer

* 17 subspecies
* ruminant
* bergmann's rule
* tremendous recreational value
* crashed in 1850-1900s
* T. Roosevelt founded the boone and crockett club and established the hunter ethics
* huge population increases through the 1900s
* Lacey Act (1900)
* development of state wardens
* Aldo Leopold’s Game Management in 1933
* wildlife biologists trained in the 1940s- 50s

Wilderness Act of 1964

* preserve and protect certain lands “in their natural condition”
* “secure for present and future generations the benefits of wilderness.

Benthos

* the flora and fauna found on the bottom or in the bottom sediments/ of a sea/ lake/ or other body of water
* loss a lot of sedentary bentos during eutrophication of the Mississippi River
* refers to infaunal (in) and epifaunal (on) animal assemblages associated with lake and ocean substrates
* The benthos community is composed of a diversity of
* macrobenthos (>1 mm in length)
* meiobenthos (0.1-1.0 mm)
* microbenthos (

Coastal wetland ecosystems services

* storm protection
* erosion protection
* wildlife habitat
* fisheries production
* nutrient and sediment filter
* carbon sequestration
* recreation

Storm protection

barrier islands are critical buffers that reduce inland storm damage

Erosion protection

vegetation around marshes resist coastal erosion from currents/tides

Wildlife habitats

coastal marshes provide food and habitats for resident and migratory wildlife

Fisheries production

75% of commercial and recreational species marsh dependent

Nutrient and Sediment filter

filters the dirt from going to the Gulf

Carbon Sequestration

* the trees reduce flooding
* Filter pollutants before they reach the water
* stabilize stream banks and help reduce erosion and sediment pollution

Recreation

the marsh provides lots of education and fishing opportunities for humans

Coastal wetland loss

* subsidence
* sea level rise
* saltwater intrusion
* sediment deprivation from MR levees

subsidence

sinking

sea level rise

when land sinks, water rises

saltwater intrusion

* to reduce the chances of flooding:
* canals were built to drain water..
* However, saltwater would run inside the canals and affect the freshwater fish and species (BAD)

sediment deprivation

sediment starvation over the last half-century has shifted an accretion/erosion equilibrium towards marsh loss

Coastal wetland restoration projects

* ridge restoration
* oyster reef development
* shoreline protection
* barrier island restoration
* marsh creation
* MR water/sediment diversions