Riparian Zone Effects

Riparian inputs into aquatic habitats have been shown that they have a direct effect on the productivity of primary and higher order consumers. This dependence on the terrestrial environment for inputs into the system allows for a variety of interactions between the different trophic levels to take place (Wallace et al. 1999, as cited in L. E. England & A.D. Rosemond 2004). Riparian habitats have the ability to not only direct the degree of intensity …

…part in the cycling of nutrients. Algae themselves can represent a predicament when nutrient levels increase and algal blooms become toxic, this results in deoxygenation of deeper stratified waters and allows for high concentrations of ammonia or hydrogen sulfide to occur (Covich et al. 1996 as cited in Covich et al. 1999). The benthos environment of any area that falls under anoxic conditions will result in an altered species composition (Covich et al. 1999), if not mass extinction.