The present study’s goal was to determine the cumulative effect of a golf course on stream function

as the stream flows. Given these criteria, the study design was not able to fully control for watershed size, the distance between up and downstream sampling points, and the local stream habitat where leaf bags were deployed and water was sampled. Stream habitats were more similar up and downstream of golf course facilities than among stream sampling areas. This uncontrolled variance likely contributed to some of the observed inconsistency between and within streams that was not directly linked to golf course facilities. A range of site specific and regional landscape anthropogenic activities (agriculture, recreational, industrial, and urban) affect sedimentation rates, macroinvertebrate density, microbial Metformin supplier colonization, and nutrient loads, which then influence the local decomposer communities and their organic matter processing capabilities (Hagen et al., 2006, McTammany et al., 2008 and Sponseller and Benfield, 2001). In lower

nutrient reference systems, non-microbial www.selleckchem.com/products/byl719.html decomposer activity can be negatively impacted by landscape features the destabilize soil/sediments and load nutrients (Allan et al., 1997, Hagen et al., 2006, McTammany et al., 2008 and Sponseller and Benfield, 2001). However, in nutrient-rich streams, organic matter decomposition is facilitated more strongly by microbial and physical mechanisms (Hagen et al., 2006 and Young et al., 1994). Under these conditions, in high nutrient anthropogenic impacted streams, golf courses can act as local refuge from urban and agricultural landscapes (Colding et al., 2009 and Tanner and Gange, 2005), which might also alter organic matter cycles. In the present study, fine mesh leaf bags were used, which only allowed leaf breakdown to occur through leaching and microbial activity and excluded animal decomposer activity. Across all streams, oxygen consumption rates were within the range expected for

leaf tissues that breakdown at slow to medium rates (Kuehn et al., 1999, Niyogi et al., 2003, Petersen and Cummins, 1974 and Webster Pregnenolone and Benfield, 1986). Leaf breakdown rates were high relative to other studies that adjusted rates for leaching (Hagen et al., 2006 and Petersen and Cummins, 1974), suggesting that leaching might have contributed to leaf mass losses in the present study. Golf course facilities significantly affected benthic stream function and the direction of their impact was linked to the percent anthropogenic land use in each stream. The magnitude of change among up and downstream sampling locations at GC5 significantly differed from that of GC2, GC3, and GC6. In addition, the direction of change differed between GC1 to GC5 and GC4 to GC6.