Benthic organic matter (BOM) standing crops along the Ball Creek / Coweeta Creek elevational gradient at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory from 1991 to 1992

We investigated how benthic organic matter (BOM) standing CR varied over space and time in the context of an elevational stream-size gradient. Samples were collected with a stratified random procedure to also study how BOM varied with respect to the major habitat patches within the stream. Habitat patch include cobble-riffle, sandy-reach, and rock. Benthic organic matter was collected efuarterly from streams draining a 9-yr-old clearcut, an 18-yr-old "old-field", a 25-yr-old successional forest, and two reference watersheds at Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, USA. Samples were separated into large benthic organic matter (LBOM >1 mm) and fine benthic organic matter (FBOM <1 mm). An additional survey of large (>5 cm diam.) and small (1-5 cm diam.) wood was conducted. This study was conducted from 1991 to 1992.