The Streamside Forest Provides a Source of Energy for Aquatic Life

The streamside forest functions as a SOURCE when it provides energy to streams in the form of dissolved carbon compounds and particulate organic detritus. These materials are critical to processes within the stream itself, helping to restore and maintain nature's equilibrium. In small, well-shaded upland streams, as much as 75% of the organic food base may be supplied by dissolved organic compounds or detritus such as fruit, limbs, leaves and insects that fall from the forest canopy. Benthic detritivores (the stream bottom bacteria, fungi and invertebrates that feed on the detritus) form the basis of the aquatic food chain. They pass on this energy when they are, in turn, consumed by larger benthic fauna and eventually by fish. Thus the streamside forest functions as an important energy source for the entire aquatic food chain from headwaters to estuary.

Photo right: Energy for aquatic life is added to streams in the form of leaves and twigs, a part of a mixture called detritus.

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