Life History and Secondary Production of Mayflies (Ephemeroptera) Indicate Disturbance in Two Small Carpathian Streams

Abstract

AbstractThe life histories and the secondary production of 9 mayflies (Ephemeroptera) species were studied at two sites in a submountain stream (West Carpathians, Slovakia). The disturbed site has a deforested and converted to meadows and pastures catchment and the undisturbed one is a well‐preserved submountain stream with 60% of the catchment covered by spruce forests. Differences in the forest cover and in the thermal regime of both streams were reflected in the structural as well as the functional measures. At the undisturbed site, the total secondary production of mayfly community was more than two times higher (3568 mg DW m–2 y–1) than at the disturbed site (1446 mg DW m–2 y–1). Species could be divided according to their affinity to particular disturbance level. Ecdyonurus picteti, Rhithrogena carpatoalpina, Habrophlebia lauta and Habroleptoides confusa appeared to prefer undisturbed conditions. On the contrary, Ecdyonurus aurantiacus and Habrophlebia fusca occurred only at the disturbed site. The dominant species Baetis rhodani and Electrogena samalorum did not show any clear preference regarding the catchment disturbance. However, nymphs of Electrogena samalorum seem to be more successful at the disturbed site, where they reached bigger body sizes (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)