Linking the Leaf Pack Experiment to Stream Ecology
The Leaf Pack Experiment Kit and Leaf Pack Network® are designed to enhance student understanding of stream
ecosystems and to demonstrate the importance of streamside forests. Historically streams and the life in those
streams, evolved and developed under forested conditions. Researchers at the Stroud Water Research Center have
been studying the connection between streamside forests and stream ecosystems for the past 30 years.
In the mid-seventies, the Stroud Water Research Center's first director had an innovative idea of studying an
entire watershed opposed to a section of stream as had been done in the past. Not only does a stream change
physically as it flows downstream but also biologically. The River Continuum Concept, developed by scientists
from the Stroud Water Research Center and other colleagues, was the first unified hypothesis about how streams and their watersheds work. A river is a single continuum that flows ceaselessly from its
source to the sea. To understand it, you must know what is happening upstream and what is entering it from the watershed. Today, the River Continuum Concept is still the most widely sited study in the
field of stream ecology.
Early research conducted for the River Continuum laid the foundation for more recent studies linking streamside
forests and stream ecosystems. Since the mid-1980's, it has been well known that streamside forests can function as filters for pollution. On-going research at the SWRC has determined that in addition
to acting as buffers for pollution, streamside forests are an integral and essential part of the stream ecosystem that affect the physical, chemical and biological aspect of streams.
As part of its research, Stroud Water Research Center scientists have used leaf packs to better understand the stream ecosystem. In Costa Rica, for example, leaf packs have been used to study how
tropical streams differ from temperate streams. Leaf packs in the Flint River, Georgia, were used to assess effects of industrial effluents.
Conducting a leaf pack experiment by placing artificial leaf packs in the stream, replicates the natural process of leaves forming packs in streams. Participants learn scientific principles, gain an
understanding of how streams function as ecosystems and are given an opportunity to communicate their data to the global community through the Leaf Pack Network®.
Natural leaf pack |
Artificial leaf pack |
Additional Readings
