Date (Publication)

2019-03

Cited responsible party

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
DFO	Colin Levings		Principal investigator
	J.A. Grout		Principal investigator
	J.S. Richardson		Principal investigator

Presentation form

Digital document

Purpose

Our study on decomposition rates of L. Salicaria in the Fraser River and estuary gives the first available data for this introduced exotic from an estuarine or large lotic system. We estimated the decomposition rates of leaf material from the two species using a litter bag technique. We also investigated differences in decomposition between locations within the estuary, and conducted a preliminary study of colonization of the detritus by invertebrates. Other than the preliminary work by Moody (1978) and Kistritz and Yesaki (1979), there are no estimates of the decomposition rate of sedges in Pacific estuaries.

Status

Completed

Maintenance and update frequency

Not planned

Global Change Master Directory (GCMD) Science Keywords v15.9

• Earth Science > Biological Classification > Plants > Angiosperms (flowering Plants)

• Earth Science > Biosphere > Aquatic Ecosystems > Estuarine Habitat

DFO Areas

• North Pacific Ocean > Fraser River and BC Interior

Language

English

Character set

UTF8

Topic category

• Biota

Environment description

867 KB

Description

Fraser River estuary in British Columbia

Begin

1993-10

End

1993-10

Supplemental Information

Using litter bag experiments in the Fraser River estuary in British Columbia, we tested for differences in the relatice decomposition rates between leaves of purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), an introduced exotic and a native sedge (Carex lynbyei). The difference in the mean decay rate coefficient for the two species was significantly different (p<0.01) and the coefficient for purple loostrife (0.0110 d-1) was nearly four times higher than for Lyngbyei’s sedge (0.0028 d-1). This is the first estimate of the decay rate coefficient for purple loosestrife from an estuary. The rapid decay rate of loosestrife leaves suggests that they supply detritus to the ecosystem in autumn whereas the much slower decay rate of sedge implies that it supplies detritus throughout the winter and early spring. Consumer organisms important in juvenile salmon food webs appear to be adapted to take advantage of the detritus provided in these seasons. The findings have implications for habitat management because purple loosestrife has recently invaded estuaries of the northeast Pacific and may be outcompeting native sedges important in detrital-based food webs.

Distribution format

Name	Version
electronic	none

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Pacific Salmon Foundation	Isobel Pearsall	pearsalli@shaw.ca	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link	https://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/science/data-donnees/index-eng.html	DFO Science website
WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download	https://soggy2.zoology.ubc.ca/geonetwork/srv/api/records/fafb7b9e-6724-4b29-903a-3b3ae6b378c1/attachments/fafb7b9e-6724-4b29-903a-3b3ae6b378c1.pdf	fafb7b9e-6724-4b29-903a-3b3ae6b378c1.pdf
WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download	https://soggy2.zoology.ubc.ca/geonetwork/srv/api/records/fafb7b9e-6724-4b29-903a-3b3ae6b378c1/attachments/fafb7b9e-6724-4b29-903a-3b3ae6b378c1.xlsx	fafb7b9e-6724-4b29-903a-3b3ae6b378c1.xlsx

Hierarchy level

Dataset

Statement

Levings produced paper copy. Fraser scanned with Fujitsu Scansnap s1500 (ABBY Finereader OCR software). Data was extracted through Adobe Reader conversion and manual entry into MS Excel.

Metadata

File identifier

fafb7b9e-6724-4b29-903a-3b3ae6b378c1 XML

Metadata language

eng

Character set

UTF8

Hierarchy level

Dataset

Date stamp

2023-12-19T00:20:40.733Z

Metadata standard name

North American Profile of ISO19115:2003 - Geographic information - Metadata

Metadata standard version

NAP - CAN/CGSB-171.100-2009

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Pacific Salmon Foundation	Sarah Fraser	fraser.sarahk@gmail.com	Author

Other language

Language	Character encoding
French	UTF8
English	UTF8