SGER: Effects of 17 Year Cicada Emergence on Aquatic Food Webs

Miami University, Oxford OH

Investigators

Abstract

Many ecosystems, including caves, oceanic islands, streams and rivers, ponds, reservoirs, and estuaries rely on allochthonous inputs (i.e., inputs from outside the system per se). The emergence of periodical cicadas constitutes a large and infrequent allochthonous nutrient and energy subsidy into small ponds and streams. This project will be the first to measure the importance of fluxes of carbon and nutrients to aquatic systems via cicada carcasses in an attempt to quantify their importance to aquatic ecosystems. The approach will quantify the impacts of this subsidy on aquatic ecosystems using large outdoor mesocosm experiments in which experimental food webs will be studied that receive different amounts of cicada subsidy. Field surveys of cicada flux rates to aquatic systems, mathematical modeling of food web dynamics, and small, mechanistic experiments will also be performed. This research would also provide a one-time opportunity for undergraduates to experience a very infrequent, important ecological event, and would take advantage of Miami University's REU Program.