A suite of exoenzyme activities was assayed in three New Zealand streams draining pasture, native forest, and a pine catchment. There were differences among catchments in activity of three of the five enzymes assayed (cello‐biohydrolase, N‐acetylglucosaminidase, and dihydroxylphenylalanine oxidation). A principal components analysis (PCA) demonstrates that patterns of enzyme activity can be used to separate the three stream ty...

Bacterial production is the entry point for detrital macronutrients into aquatic food webs. Many factors affect productivity, but the heterogeneity of detrital substrates and the diversity of microbial communities confound simple relationships between carbon supply and growth. We tried to link the two by analyzing extracellular enzyme activities. Water samples were collected from three rivers and assayed for bacterial producti...