Effective Stream Health Assessment: Soil Microbes Versus Aquatic Insects

Aquatic Insects: Hemimetabolous Insects – Plecoptera

Biogeography of aquatic microbes

Aquatic microbes, like all organisms, have biogeographies, but this subject has attracted relatively little attention. In this review, recent results exploiting techniques of molecular biology are summarized to place in perspective the studies of this Theme Section. The studies considered concern large-scale patterns of spatial distribution among heterotrophic planktonic prokaryotic and eukaryo...

Secondary Production, Emergence, and Export of Aquatic Insects of a Sonoran Desert Stream

Aquatic insect secondary production, emergence, and export of adults to the adjacent terrestrial ecosystem were assessed in Sycamore Creek, Arizona, by means of benthic sampling, emergence traps, and catch-nets that passively sampled adults falling into the stream. Annual secondary production was 120.9 ? 18.0 g-m-2 yr-t and emergence was 23.1 g.m-2 yr-t (in dry mass units). The ratio of annual ...

Helping plants to deal with insects: the role of beneficial soil-borne microbes.

Several soil-borne microbes such as mycorrhizal fungi and plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria can help plants to deal with biotic and abiotic stresses via plant growth promotion and induced resistance. Such beneficial belowground microbes interact in a bidirectional way via the plant with aboveground insects such as herbivores, their natural enemies and pollinators. The role of these interacti...

Induced plant responses to microbes and insects

Plants play a key role in the sustainability of life on earth. They fix the solar energy that drives nearly all living processes. As a result, plants are members of complex communities and interact both with antagonists and beneficial organisms. To defend themselves against harmful pathogens and insects, plants have evolved a sophisticated immune system to perceive alien organisms, and to trans...