Agriculture land use effects on riverine ecosystem structure and function

Conférence de Marguerite A. Xenopoulos, professeure associée au Département de Biologie de Trent University.

Résumé
In all inhabited regions of the world, rivers are experiencing many and often irreversible changes from intensive land use. Here, I will examine the effects of one predominant land use, agriculture, on ecosystem structure and ecological function of streams and rivers of Ontario, Canada. We have found agriculture land use to alter the structure of communities (e.g., algae, macroinvertebrates, fish, fungal biomass) and the services (function) that they provide (e.g., nutrient recycling, decomposition, denitrification). Many of these changes result from the high nutrient concentrations that accompany overfertilization of agriculture lands. Furthermore, the processing of organic carbon appears to be greater in the highly productive, agricultural streams, which further changes the quality of the organic matter and ultimately stream ecological function.

Conférence présentée par le Département de sciences biologiques de l’Université de Montréal dans le cadre de la série « Midi Écologique ».