Leaf decomposition along the Ball Creek / Coweeta Creek elevational gradient at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory from 1991 to 1992

This work was conducted in the southern Appalachian Mountains at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory, North Carolina, USA from 1991 to 1992. We investigated in-stream leaf decomposition in different habitat patches using leaf species that varied in their speed of processing along a first fourth-order stream gradient. Most studies of stream disturbance have been from the perspective of point or non-point discharges that impinge directly on stream communities. Streams may also receive indirect impacts when the catchments they drain are disturbed by such activities as logging. Logging has been extensive in areas drained by small to intermediate streams throughout the United States, and few streams in the Eastern United States drain forests that have escaped logging. The present study was undertaken to investigate the impact of clear-cutting on the rates at which riparian tree leaves are comminuted by first-order stream communities in the southern Appalachian Mountains.