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Filter-feeders have differential bottom-up impacts on green and brown food webs

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Abstract

Nutrient recycling by consumers can strongly impact nutrient availability for autotrophic and heterotrophic microbes, thus impacting functions such as primary production and decomposition. Filter-feeding freshwater mussels form dense, multispecies assemblages in aquatic ecosystems and have been shown to play a critical role in nutrient cycling. Mussel excretion can enhance benthic primary production and influence algal species composition. However, the role of mussels in brown or detritus-based food webs and species-specific differences has received considerably less attention. Here, using mesocosm experiments, we assessed how three species of freshwater mussels that occupy three different phylogenetic tribes influenced benthic algal accrual, ecosystem metabolism, cotton strip decomposition, leaf litter (Acer saccharum) decomposition, and litter-associated fungal biomass measured as ergosterol. Additionally, we measured mussel excretion and biodeposition rates and assessed the stoichiometry (C:N, C:P, and N:P) of the benthic algae, cotton strips, and leaf litter. In comparison to controls without mussels, generally, mussel treatments had higher benthic algal biomass composed of more diatoms, higher gross primary productivity and net ecosystem production rates, and higher cotton strip tensile strength loss, but there was not a difference in ecosystem respiration rates, leaf litter decomposition rates, or fungal biomass. Benthic algae had lower C:N and higher N:P in mussel treatment tanks and cotton strip C:N was lower in mesocosms with mussels. Our results suggest that nutrient regeneration by mussels most strongly regulates green food webs, with some impacts to brown food webs, suggesting that consumers have interactive effects on microbial functioning in freshwaters.

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Acknowledgements

This work would not have been possible without assistance from Brian van Ee, Lucas Edgren, Maya Owens-Freeman, Stephanie Koury, Tori Hebert and Jane Kundberger. We appreciate comments and advice on previous versions of this manuscript from Garrett Hopper, Arial Shogren and Irene Sanchez Gonzalez. The Alabama Department of Natural Resources and Conservation and the National Science Foundation DEB-1831512 provided support for this project. Freshwater mussel collection was conducted under ALCDNR Permit # 2016077745468680.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences and the Center for Freshwater Studies, University of Alabama, 2109 Bevill Building, Tuscaloosa, AL, 35487, USA

    Carla L. Atkinson, Monica Winebarger & Ansley Hamid

  2. School of Biological, Environmental, and Earth Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi, 118 College Dr. #5018, Hattiesburg, MS, 39402, USA

    Halvor M. Halvorson & Kevin A. Kuehn

  3. Department of Biology, University of Central Arkansas, 180 Lewis Science Center 201 Donaghey Ave, Conway, AR, 72035, USA

    Halvor M. Halvorson

  4. Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 36849, USA

    Matthew N. Waters

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  1. Carla L. Atkinson
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  2. Halvor M. Halvorson
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  3. Kevin A. Kuehn
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  4. Monica Winebarger
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  5. Ansley Hamid
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  6. Matthew N. Waters
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Contributions

CLA and MNW conceived and designed the experiments. CLA, MW, and AH performed the experiments. MW conducted the chlorophyll-a analysis. CLA conducted the algae stoichiometry analysis. HMH and KAK conducted the ergosterol and leaf litter stoichiometry analysis. MNW conducted HPLC analysis. CLA performed the statistical analysis. CLA and HMH wrote the manuscript with all other authors providing editorial advice.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carla L. Atkinson.

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Communicated by Maarten Boersma.

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Atkinson, C.L., Halvorson, H.M., Kuehn, K.A. et al. Filter-feeders have differential bottom-up impacts on green and brown food webs. Oecologia 195, 187–198 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-020-04821-7

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