Primary Production in Flowing Waters1

Abstract

Respiration, photosynthetic production, and diffusion interact to produce the daily curve of oxygen change in a segment of flowing water. Conversely, the observed curves of oxygen in streams can be used to calculate the component rates of production, respiration, and diffusion. New production values obtained with these analyses of oxygen curves from various sources, as well as a few previously existing estimates of primary production, indicate a generally higher rate of production in flowing waters than in other types of aquatic environments. The ratio of total primary production to total community respiration is used to classify communities quantitatively according to their predominantly heterotrophic or autotrophic characteristics. Longitudinal succession within a stream tends to modify the ratio towards unity from higher values for autotrophic and from lower values for heterotrophic communities. The behavior of this ratio is described for the annual cycle in a stream, for the sequence of pollution recovery, and for diverse types of communities.