Lower food chain community study: thermal effects and post-thermal recovery in the streams and swamps of the Savannah River Plant, November 1983-May 1984

Technical Report · Mon Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1985

OSTI ID:5438829

Kondratieff, B C; Kondratieff, P

This report documents a study of lower food chain (autotroph and macroinvertebrate assemblage) response to, and recovery from, thermal stress in the streams and swamps of the Savannah River Plant (SRP). Data for the report were collected between November 1983 and May 1984. Elevated water temperature regimes in the thermal streams and swamps resulted in generally simplified lower food chain community structure. Thermally tolerant forms of both autotrophs (blue-green algae) and macroinvertebrates (oligochaetes, nematodes, snails and midges) were able to maintain populations in thermally stressed areas. The thermally tolerant taxa found in the perturbed streams and swamps often had high densities and biomass. It would appear tht many of the macroinvertebrate species occurring in SRP streams and swamps evolved in habitats subject to great thermal variation, both diel and seasonal. Based on the results of this study, certain temperature ranges are associated with certain general effects on the lower food chain. In temperatures >40/sup 0/C most taxa are eliminated, from 30 to 40/sup 0/C a stressed community exists with a few tolerant taxa and from 25 to 30/sup 0/C an assemblage resembling a summer ambient community in structure and function exists, often with reduced species composition. 74 refs., 20 figs., 18 tabs. (ACR)

• Research Organization: Environmental and Chemical Sciences, Inc., Aiken, SC (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC09-76SR00001
• OSTI ID: 5438829
• Report Number(s): DPST-85-218; ECS-SR-15; ON: DE85017043
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
SPECIES DIVERSITY
SAVANNAH RIVER PLANT
STREAMS
TEMPERATURE EFFECTS
THERMAL EFFLUENTS
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
ALGAE
AUFWUCHS
BENTHOS
CYANOBACTERIA
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FOOD CHAINS
INVERTEBRATES
PLANTS
SWAMPS
ANIMALS
AQUATIC ORGANISMS
DATA
ECOSYSTEMS
INFORMATION
MICROORGANISMS
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUMERICAL DATA
SURFACE WATERS
TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
WETLANDS
520400* - Environment
Aquatic- Thermal Effluents Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)