CAREER: Embedded Subsidies: a Test with Crevice-Dwelling Algae

University Of Oklahoma Norman Campus, Norman OK

Investigators

Abstract

Microscopic algae growing on stones provide the food base for most of the animals living in streams. Because these algae cannot move out of the way, they are exposed to grazing by aquatic insects and snails, and dislodgement during floods. Such loss of algae can limit the food supply in streams but, luckily, algal re-growth is rapid, in part because of outgrowth from algae protected in the crevices of streambed stones. Using a series of field and greenhouse experiments, this research examines how algae protected in crevices augment the food supply of the stream ecosystem and speed the re-growth of algae after floods. The prevalence of crevice-dwelling algae will be assessed in a field survey measuring the abundance of algae in crevice refuges in Western US streams. This research will expand our ecological understanding of how protected algae subsidize stream ecosystems, and help explain the high production and fast recovery of streams. These ideas and others will be incorporated into an expanding outreach program, in which graduate and undergraduate students present in hands-on biology programs for elementary students, both in the classroom and in after-school programs. These programs contribute to science literacy in children and teach advanced students how to effectively communicate science.