What is a Shredder?
Shredders are macroinvertebrates that are classified in functional feeding groups. One of these feeding groups are shredders. The shredders shred leaves and decaying matter.
Why we care?
We care because we want to learn about the shredders and how they shred the food that they eat/shred. Also, we want to find out the results to the projects so we could possibly answer other questions.
Driving Questins
- Does it matter what macroinvertebrate is a shredder?
- What’s the food cycle of the shredder when it shreds the decaying matter?
- Do shredders like leaves in the sun or in the shade?
- What type of food do they like?
Shredders can be found in almost any body of water as long as it has leaves for the shredders to shred. The only time you would not see shredders in a body of water is because there are no leaves to shred or the body of water probably has pollution. Some scientists will collect shredders and see if there is pollution in the water. In our research on Santa Cruz Island, we noticed that all the shredders that we collected all went for the more decaying and moldy leaves than the new and still green leaves. Also we noticed that they like the leaves in the benthic zone (the bottom of the stream) rather than leaves floating on top of the water. We also noticed that a shredder called the Water Boatman collects air from the surface by using its abdomen and 4 antennas to collect the air and store it on its back as a bubble. That is how it stays underwater for so long.
In this chart are the results to our experiment to see if the shredders like the brown decaying leaves or the green leaves. In our research we found out that the shredders like the brown decaying leaves better then the newly fallen green leaves.
| Green Leaves | Brown Leaves | |
|---|---|---|
| Water Beetles: | 11 | 22 |
| Stoneflies: | 1 | 0 |
| Mayflies: | 2 | 1 |
| Midges: | 0 | 53 |
| Hemiptera (small water strider:) | 3 | 15 |
The antennae and abdomen stick up in the air to put in a bubble on its back and that is why they will stay underwater for so long.
-Liam
Liam Stevenson-Lux, Riley Garner, Noah Walker Burgess and Tristan Santillan