LIFE HISTORY AND SECONDARY PRODUCTION OF Cheumatopsyche lasia Ross (TRICHOPTERA:HYDROPSYCHIDAE) WITH RESEPCT TO A WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY IN A NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS URBAN STREAM Jenny Sueanna Paul, B.S. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2011 APPROVED: James H. Kennedy, Major Professor Steven J.Wolverton, Committee Member Gerard A. O’Donovan, Committee Member Art J. Goven, Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences James D. Meernik, Acting Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Paul, Jenny Sueanna. Life History and Secondary Production of Cheumatopsyche lasia Ross (Trichoptera: Hydropsychidae) with Respect to a Wastewater Treatment Facility in a North Texas Urban Stream. Master of Science (Biology), December 2011, 52 pp., 5 tables, 11 figures, references, 117 titles. This study represents the first shift in multivoltine life history of Cheumatopsyche species from a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in North America. Populations of C. lasia were examined upstream and downstream of the Denton’s Pecan Creek WWTP August 2009 through November 2010. C. lasia is multivoltine in Pecan Creek with three cohorts observed upstream of the WWTP and four possible cohorts downstream. A fourth generation was possible downstream as thermal inputs from WWTP effluent resulted in elevated water temperatures that allowed larval development to progress through the winter producing a cohort ready to emerge in spring. Production of C. lasia was 5 times greater downstream of the WWTP with secondary production estimates of 1.3 g m-2 yr-1 and 4.88- 6.51 g m-2 yr-1, respectively. Differences in abundance were due to increased habitat availability downstream of the WWTP in addition to continuous stream flow from inputs of wastewater effluent. Results also suggest that C. lasia is important for energy transfer in semiarid urban prairie streams and may serve as a potential conduit for the transfer of energy along with emergent contaminants to terrestrial ecosystems. These finding highlight the need for more quantitative accounts of population dynamics (voltinism, development rates, secondary production, and P/B) of aquatic insect species to fully understand the ecology and energy dynamics of urban systems. Copyright 2011 By Jenny Sueanna Paul ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project was associated with the University of North Texas, Institute of Applied Sciences, and Department of Biology. Special thanks to my major advisor, Dr. Kennedy, and my committee, Drs Wolverton and O’Donovan. I appreciate the assistance and insights provided by David Hunter and Kenneth Banks with the City of Denton. Thanks to my lab mates in the Benthic Ecology lab for assistance and support with every aspect of this project. I am especially indebted to Kaitlin Slovak, Mike Simanonok, and Rosemary Burke for collection of field samples, particularly from November 2009 through January 2010 while I was unable to collect due to a broken ankle. I am also grateful to numerous undergraduate students who assisted with processing and picking samples. I would like to thank Dr. Venables and Benjamin Lundeen for assistance with analytical work regarding contaminants as well as David Baxter and Patrick Horn for assistance with lipid extractions. Finally, I am thankful for the support of my friends and family as they are a constant source of encouragement, love, and inspiration. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iii LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 Background Information ..................................................................................................... 1 Study Organism .................................................................................................................. 3 Research Objectives ............................................................................................................ 6 Study Area .......................................................................................................................... 6 MATERIALS AND METHODS .................................................................................................... 8 Water Chemistry ................................................................................................................. 8 Collection of Larvae ........................................................................................................... 8 Laboratory Rearing ............................................................................................................. 9 Production ......................................................................................................................... 10 RESULTS ..................................................................................................................................... 12 Physico-Chemical Parameters .......................................................................................... 12 Pupae ................................................................................................................................. 14 Laboratory Rearing ........................................................................................................... 15 Seasonal Development and Voltinism .............................................................................. 15 Biomass and Secondary Production.................................................................................. 16 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................................... 19 APPENDIX CADDIS FLY FREQUENCY RAW DATA .......................................................... 39 LITERATURE CITED ................................................................................................................. 44 iv LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1 Summary of water chemistry for Pecan Creek as monthly averages from August 2009 through November 2010. .............................................................................................................. 35 Table 2 Secondary production calculations for upstream (WOOD). ........................................... 36 Table 3 Secondary production calculation for downstream (WWTP). ........................................ 37 Table 4 Caddis fly lipids summary of results for total lipid estimates from caddis fly tissue. .... 38 v LIST OF FIGURES Page Fig. 1 Map of the Pecan creek watershed. .................................................................................... 24 Fig. 2 Discharge estimates. ........................................................................................................... 25 Fig. 3 Dissolved oxygen estimates. .............................................................................................. 26 Fig. 4 Temperature estimates ........................................................................................................ 27 Fig. 5 Degree day estimates. ......................................................................................................... 28 Fig. 6 Scatter plot of head capsule measurements. ....................................................................... 29 Fig. 7 Illustration of larval head capsule development. ................................................................ 30 Fig. 8 Illustration of pupae abdomen ............................................................................................ 31 Fig. 9 Life history diagram for upstream (WOOD). ..................................................................... 32 Fig. 10 Life history diagram for downstream (WWTP) ............................................................... 33 Fig. 11 Total abundance estimates................................................................................................ 34 vi INTRODUCTION Background Information Urbanization occurs when forests and rural areas are modified for residential, municipal, or commercial uses (Wear and Bolstad, 1998, Wear and Greis, 2002) and is particularly evident near water bodies (Feminella and Walsh, 2005). Urbanization is second only to agriculture as the leading cause of stream impairment in the United States (Paul and Meyer, 2001). Half of the world’s population (Feminella and Walsh, 2005) and over two-thirds of the U.S. population (Paul and Meyer, 2001) live in urban centers. As this proportion continues to increase, impacts from urban areas will also increase (McGranhan and Satterthwaite, 2003). Streams and rivers close to urbanized areas are often degraded both chemically and ecologically (Walsh et al., 2005). The pattern of degradation observed repeatedly has been termed the urban stream syndrome by Meyer et al. (2005). Symptoms include: flashier hydrographic profiles following storm events, altered channel morphology, elevated concentrations of nutrients and contaminants, and reduced biotic richness (Paul and Meyer, 2001, Meyer, Paul and Taulbee, 2005). Mechanisms driving the syndrome are complex and interactive, making it difficult to understand direct cause and effect;