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Cleveland Metroparks Zoo/Cleveland Zoological Society
Conservation and Research Small Grants Program

2002 GRANT RECIPIENT

Peter McIntyre

Ph.D. student, Cornell University

The Role of Sediment in the Food Web of an Andean Peidmont System

Location: Rio Las Marias, Andean Venezuela

Species: fish, tadpoles and snails

Abstract: This project will investigate the role of sediment in the diets of fish, tadpoles, and snails in an Andean piedmont stream and determine the effect of sediment accumulation on primary productivity and microbial respiration on natural substrates. These approaches will give insight into the contribution of sediments to stream food webs and allow prediction of the impact of increasing anthropogenic sedimentation on primary consumers and ecosystem processes in tropical streams.

Project Photos: Rio Las Marias (RLM) in an area where the riparian forest was cut 10 years ago RLM where the riparian forest remains Our method of counting benthic fishes in RLM Prochilodus mariae, one of the dominant sediment-consuming fishes of the Venezuelan llanos P. mariae's mouth, shows the fleshy lips used to suction-feed on sediment Characidium, a South American darter, next to a rock with sediment on it Crenicichla geayi, a common riverine cichlid, guarding its babies A typical view along the reach of RLM where the study will be conducted Omnivorous crab The matrix of sediment created by the feeding of Prochilodus mariae all photos by Peter McIntyre