Microbiology Commons^™

Urbanization Changes The Composition And Bioavailability Of Dissolved Organic Matter In Headwater Streams, Thomas B. Parr, Christopher Cronan, Tsutomu Ohno, Stuart Findlay, Sean Smith, Kevin Simon

Publications

Population growth in cities has resulted in the rapid expansion of urbanized land. Most research and management of stream ecosystems affected by urban expansion has focused on the maintenance and restoration of biotic communities rather than their basal resources. We examined the potential for urbanization to induce bottom-up ecosystem effects by looking at its influence on dissolved organic matter (DOM) composition and bioavailability and microbial enzyme activity. We selected 113 headwater streams across a gradient of urbanization in central and southern Maine and used elemental and optical analyses, including parallel factor analysis of excitation-emission matrices, to characterize DOM composition. Results …