Production of the Crayfish Cambarus Bartonii (Fabricius, 1798) (Decapoda, Cambaridae) in an Acidic Appalachian Stream (U.S.a.)

The growth rate and annual production of the crayfish Cambarus bartonii were estimated in Crouch Run, a 3rd-order stream that drains a high-elevation catchment in West Virginia and which has been acidified because of acidic precipitation. Production of C. bartonii in Crouch Run was 525.8 mg AFDW m-2 yr-1 and was less than that for C. bartonii in Upper Ball Creek, a high-elevation circumneutral stream in North Carolina (961.0 mg AFDW m-2 yr-1, Huryn & Wallace, 1987). This difference seemed to be related to differences in the biomass of C. bartonii between the streams, because the P/B ratio for C. bartonii in Crouch Run was 7.4 compared with 5.8 in Upper Ball Creek.