Greater attention to riparian forest management has increased the demand for scientific information about riparian areas. This need has pointed out what we know-and do not know-about riparian ecological structure and function. Riparian forests provide shade, woody debris, and terrestrial litter that help maintain stream functions and processes. The interaction of aquatic and terrestrial systems may be especially pronounced in small streams, where litter inputs from riparian vegetation are likely to provide a majority of the energy and nutritional base for aquatic food chains. Little is known, however, about the quantity or source locations of litter input that are important in aquatic and terrestrial food chains.
There is a lack of knowledge about how riparian area characteristics, including lateral slope and vegetation composition and density, may lead to differences in input of both vertical litter (which falls directly from overhead) and lateral litter (which moves down the slope). Management decisions favoring evergreen overstories in riparian forests make it important to understand how the timing, quantity, and quality of these kinds of litter differ between forest types and topographic settings.
This project addresses the potential impacts of overstory vegetation on vertical and lateral inputs of litter to streams with varied slopes and understory compositions. Information about timing, quantity, and quality of litter inputs to streams can be used to better understand the effects of riparian forest management on food chains. More specifically, this report addresses the following objectives:
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to measure amounts
and identify sources of vertical and lateral litter inputs |
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to
characterize the seasonal pattern of vertical and
lateral litter movement |
For additional information about this research study see
the 2005 CFER
Annual Report. (2.2 MB)
