ORCID Profile
0000-0002-1390-8742
Current Organisations
The University of Canberra
,
Colorado State University
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Environmental Management | Applied Statistics | Surfacewater Hydrology | Ecology | Ecological Impacts of Climate Change | Ecological Applications | Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience | Environmental Monitoring | Freshwater Ecology
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change | Water Allocation and Quantification | Ecosystem Assessment and Management at Regional or Larger Scales | Expanding Knowledge in the Environmental Sciences | Rural Water Policy |
Related Links
Publications
Functional organization of stream fish assemblages in relation to hydrological variability
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-1995
DOI: 10.2307/1941217
Ecological responses to altered flow regimes: A literature review to inform the science and management of environmental flows
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-12-2010
Algal Colonization under Four Experimentally-Controlled Current Regimes in High Mountain Stream
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 12-1990
DOI: 10.2307/1467898
The Fate of Deep-Sea Coral Reefs on Seamounts in a Fishery-Seascape: What Are the Impacts, What Remains, and What Is Protected?
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 25-09-2020
Water resources and sustainable aquatic ecosystems: A vision for 2050
Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers
Date: 13-04-2012
The use of Bayesian networks to guide investments in flow and catchment restoration for impaired river ecosystems
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-12-2010
Morphological taxonomy, DNA barcoding, and species diversity in southern Rocky Mountain headwater streams
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 03-2014
DOI: 10.1086/674526
Herbivory, current velocity and algal regrowth: How does periphyton grow when the grazers have gone?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-10-2006
Maximizing Joint Economic and Ecological Robustness in Floodplain Planning
Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers
Date: 14-05-2015
The long history of the biotic homogenization concept [3] (multiple letters)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2004
Redundancy and the choice of hydrologic indices for characterizing streamflow regimes
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2003
DOI: 10.1002/RRA.700
Understanding Human–Landscape Interactions in the “Anthropocene”
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-06-2013
DOI: 10.1007/S00267-013-0082-0
Abstract: This article summarizes the primary outcomes of an interdisciplinary workshop in 2010, sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation, focused on developing key questions and integrative themes for advancing the science of human-landscape systems. The workshop was a response to a grand challenge identified recently by the U.S. National Research Council (2010a)--"How will Earth's surface evolve in the "Anthropocene?"--suggesting that new theories and methodological approaches are needed to tackle increasingly complex human-landscape interactions in the new era. A new science of human-landscape systems recognizes the interdependence of hydro-geomorphological, ecological, and human processes and functions. Advances within a range of disciplines spanning the physical, biological, and social sciences are therefore needed to contribute toward interdisciplinary research that lies at the heart of the science. Four integrative research themes were identified--thresholds/tipping points, time scales and time lags, spatial scales and boundaries, and feedback loops--serving as potential focal points around which theory can be built for human-landscape systems. Implementing the integrative themes requires that the research communities: (1) establish common metrics to describe and quantify human, biological, and geomorphological systems (2) develop new ways to integrate erse data and methods and (3) focus on synthesis, generalization, and meta-analyses, as in idual case studies continue to accumulate. Challenges to meeting these needs center on effective communication and collaboration across erse disciplines spanning the natural and social scientific ide. Creating venues and mechanisms for sustained focused interdisciplinary collaborations, such as synthesis centers, becomes extraordinarily important for advancing the science.
Accelerating environmental flow implementation to bend the curve of global freshwater biodiversity loss
Publisher: Canadian Science Publishing
Date: 06-07-2023
DOI: 10.1139/ER-2022-0126
Abstract: Environmental flows (e-flows) aim to mitigate the threat of altered hydrological regimes in river systems and connected waterbodies and are an important component of integrated strategies to address multiple threats to freshwater bio ersity. Expanding and accelerating implementation of e-flows can support river conservation and help to restore the bio ersity and resilience of hydrologically altered and water-stressed rivers and connected freshwater ecosystems. While there have been significant developments in e-flows science, assessment and societal acceptance, implementation of e-flows within water resources management has been slower than required and geographically uneven. This review explores critical factors that enable successful e-flows implementation and bio ersity outcomes in particular, drawing on 13 case studies and the literature. It presents e-flows implementation as an adaptive management cycle enabled by 10 factors: legislation and governance, financial and human resourcing, stakeholder engagement and co-production of knowledge, collaborative monitoring of ecological and social-economic outcomes, capacity training and research, exploration of trade-offs among water users, removing or retrofitting water infrastructure to facilitate e-flows and connectivity, and adaptation to climate change. Recognising that there may be barriers and limitations to the full and effective enablement of each factor, the authors have identified corresponding options and generalizable recommendations for actions to overcome prominent constraints, drawing on the case studies and wider literature. The urgency of addressing flow-related freshwater bio ersity loss demands collaborative networks to train and empower a new generation of e-flows practitioners equipped with the latest tools and insights to lead adaptive environmental water management globally. Mainstreaming e-flows within conservation planning, integrated water resource management (IWRM), river restoration strategies and adaptations to climate change, is imperative. The policy drivers and associated funding commitments of the Kunming-Montreal Global Bio ersity Framework offer crucial opportunities to achieve the human benefits contributed by e-flows as nature-based solutions (NBS), such as flood risk management, floodplain fisheries restoration and increased river resilience to climate change.
Size-dependent drift responses of mayflies to experimental hydrologic variation: active predator avoidance or passive hydrodynamic displacement?
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-1991
DOI: 10.1007/BF00317723
Evolution of Environmental Flows Assessment Science, Principles and Methodologies
Publisher: Elsevier
Date: 2017
Informatics software for the ecologist's toolbox: A basic example
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2006
Preschool Teacher's Experience on Learning Strategies for Distance Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Publisher: Unpublished
Date: 2021
Ecological thresholds: The key to successful environmental management or an important concept with no practical application?
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 30-01-2006
The three Rs of river ecosystem resilience: Resources, recruitment, and refugia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-01-2019
DOI: 10.1002/RRA.3396
Movement behaviour and dynamics of an aquatic insect in a stream benthic landscape
Publisher: Canadian Science Publishing
Date: 07-2004
DOI: 10.1139/Z04-094
Abstract: Understanding not just where organisms move but how they move is an important step towards integrating animal behaviour into landscape ecology. The three-dimensional landscape of a streambed provides an ideal setting for forging this integration because of the persuasive effects of flowing water. In this study, we experimentally examine the larval movement of the case-building caddisfly Agapetus boulderensis Milne, 1936 in response to two current velocities in each of five levels of contrasting habitat types (i.e., smooth patches that facilitate movement and thick algal patches that constrain movement). Detailed behavioural observations showed that larvae employed two distinctly different strategies of movement in different current velocities: faster crawling and slower pivoting. Our results suggest that in idual decision-making between crawling and pivoting is related to the magnitude of current velocity across the streambed, and the frequency at which larvae employ these behaviours translates into differential movement rates and directions. Strong concordance between a conceptual model and our results supports the notion that the presence of structural "nonhabitat" patches at high current velocities may create areas of local flow interruption and refugia. This, in turn, plays an important role in eliciting either crawling or pivoting and in shaping patterns and directions of larval movement, and by extension resource acquisition.
Downstream effects of diversion dams on sediment and hydraulic conditions of Rocky Mountain streams
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2011
DOI: 10.1002/RRA.1376
Spatiotemporal controls of simulated metacommunity dynamics in dendritic networks
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 03-2011
DOI: 10.1899/09-126.1
Validating anthropogenic threat maps as a tool for assessing river ecological integrity in Andean-Amazon basins
Publisher: PeerJ
Date: 20-11-2019
DOI: 10.7717/PEERJ.8060
Abstract: Anthropogenic threat maps are commonly used as a surrogate for the ecological integrity of rivers in freshwater conservation, but a clearer understanding of their relationships is required to develop proper management plans at large scales. Here, we developed and validated empirical models that link the ecological integrity of rivers to threat maps in a large, heterogeneous and bio erse Andean–Amazon watershed. Through fieldwork, we recorded data on aquatic invertebrate community composition, habitat quality, and physical-chemical parameters to calculate the ecological integrity of 140 streams/rivers across the basin. Simultaneously, we generated maps that describe the location, extent, and magnitude of impact of nine anthropogenic threats to freshwater systems in the basin. Through seven-fold cross-validation procedure, we found that regression models based on anthropogenic threats alone have limited power for predicting the ecological integrity of rivers. However, the prediction accuracy improved when environmental predictors (slope and elevation) were included, and more so when the predictions were carried out at a coarser scale, such as microbasins. Moreover, anthropogenic threats that lify the incidence of other pressures (roads, human settlements and oil activities) are the most relevant predictors of ecological integrity. We concluded that threat maps can offer an overall picture of the ecological integrity pattern of the basin, becoming a useful tool for broad-scale conservation planning for freshwater ecosystems. While it is always advisable to have finer scale in situ measurements of ecological integrity, our study shows that threat maps provide fast and cost-effective results, which so often are needed for pressing management and conservation actions.
Detecting biological responses to flow management: Missed opportunities; future directions
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-05-2008
DOI: 10.1002/RRA.1134
Ecological theory and community restoration ecology
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-1997
Climate change and river ecosystems: Protection and adaptation options
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-07-2009
DOI: 10.1007/S00267-009-9329-1
Abstract: Rivers provide a special suite of goods and services valued highly by the public that are inextricably linked to their flow dynamics and the interaction of flow with the landscape. Yet most rivers are within watersheds that are stressed to some extent by human activities including development, dams, or extractive uses. Climate change will add to and magnify risks that are already present through its potential to alter rainfall, temperature, runoff patterns, and to disrupt biological communities and sever ecological linkages. We provide an overview of the predicted impacts based on published studies to date, discuss both reactive and proactive management responses, and outline six categories of management actions that will contribute substantially to the protection of valuable river assets. To be effective, management must be place-based focusing on local watershed scales that are most relevant to management scales. The first priority should be enhancing environmental monitoring of changes and river responses coupled with the development of local scenario-building exercises that take land use and water use into account. Protection of a greater number of rivers and riparian corridors is essential, as is conjunctive groundwater/surface water management. This will require collaborations among multiple partners in the respective river basins and wise land use planning to minimize additional development in watersheds with valued rivers. Ensuring environmental flows by purchasing or leasing water rights and/or altering reservoir release patterns will be needed for many rivers. Implementing restoration projects proactively can be used to protect existing resources so that expensive reactive restoration to repair damage associated with a changing climate is minimized. Special attention should be given to ersifying and replicating habitats of special importance and to monitoring populations at high risk or of special value so that management interventions can occur if the risks to habitats or species increase significantly over time.
An ocean observation system for monitoring the affects of climate change on the ecology and sustainability of pelagic fisheries in the Pacific Ocean
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-10-2012
Geographic variation in patterns of nestedness among local stream fish assemblages in Virginia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 23-07-2004
DOI: 10.1007/S00442-004-1618-Z
Abstract: Nestedness of faunal assemblages is a multi-scale phenomenon, potentially influenced by a variety of factors. Prior small-scale studies have found freshwater fish species assemblages to be nested along stream courses as a result of either selective colonization or extinction. However, within-stream gradients in temperature and other factors are correlated with the distributions of many fish species and may also contribute to nestedness. At a regional level, strongly nested patterns would require a consistent set of structuring mechanisms across streams, and correlation among species' tolerances of the environmental factors that influence distribution. Thus, nestedness should be negatively associated with the spatial extent of the region analyzed and positively associated with elevational gradients (a correlate of temperature and other environmental factors). We examined these relationships for the freshwater fishes of Virginia. Regions were defined within a spatial hierarchy and included whole river drainages, portions of drainages within physiographic provinces, and smaller subdrainages. In most cases, nestedness was significantly stronger in regions of smaller spatial extent and in regions characterized by greater topographic relief. Analysis of hydrologic variability and patterns of faunal turnover provided no evidence that inter-annual colonization/extinction dynamics contributed to elevational differences in nestedness. These results suggest that, at regional scales, nestedness is influenced by interactions between biotic and abiotic factors, and that the strongest nestedness is likely to occur where a small number of organizational processes predominate, i.show $132#e., over small spatial extents and regions exhibiting strong environmental gradients.
Spatial population genetic structure and limited dispersal in a rocky mountain alpine stream insect
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-09-2006
Climate variability predicts thermal limits of aquatic insects across elevation and latitude
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-06-2017
Challenges and opportunities in implementing managed relocation for conservation of freshwater species [Retos y Oportunidades para la Implementación de la Reubicación Controlada para la Conservación de Especies Dulceacuícolas]
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-07-2011
DOI: 10.1111/J.1523-1739.2010.01557.X
Abstract: The rapidity of climate change is predicted to exceed the ability of many species to adapt or to disperse to more climatically favorable surroundings. Conservation of these species may require managed relocation (also called assisted migration or assisted colonization) of in iduals to locations where the probability of their future persistence may be higher. The history of non-native species throughout the world suggests managed relocation may not be applicable universally. Given the constrained existence of freshwater organisms within highly dendritic networks containing isolated ponds, lakes, and rivers, managed relocation may represent a useful conservation strategy. Yet, these same distinctive properties of freshwater ecosystems may increase the probability of unintended ecological consequences. We explored whether managed relocation is an ecologically sound conservation strategy for freshwater systems and provided guidelines for identifying candidates and localities for managed relocation. A comparison of ecological and life-history traits of freshwater animals associated with high probabilities of extirpation and invasion suggests that it is possible to select species for managed relocation to minimize the likelihood of unintended effects to recipient ecosystems. We recommend that translocations occur within the species' historical range and optimally within the same major river basin and that lacustrine and riverine species be translocated to physically isolated seepage lakes and upstream of natural or artificial barriers, respectively, to lower the risk of secondary spread across the landscape. We provide five core recommendations to enhance the scientific basis of guidelines for managed relocation in freshwater environments: adopt the term managed translocation to reflect the fact that in iduals will not always be reintroduced within their historical native range examine the trade-off between facilitation of in idual movement and the probability of range expansion of non-native species determine which species and locations might be immediately considered for managed translocation adopt a hypothetico-deductive framework by conducting experimental trials to introduce species of conservation concern into new areas within their historical range build on previous research associated with species reintroductions through communication and synthesis of case studies.
A Classification of Stream Water Temperature Regimes in the Conterminous USA
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-04-2015
DOI: 10.1002/RRA.2906
Extreme streams: species persistence and genomic change in montane insect populations across a flooding gradient
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 12-02-2018
DOI: 10.1111/ELE.12918
Abstract: The ecological and evolutionary consequences of extreme events are poorly understood. Here, we tested predictions about species persistence and population genomic change in aquatic insects in 14 Colorado mountain streams across a hydrological disturbance gradient caused by a one in 500-year rainfall event. Taxa persistence ranged from 39 to 77% across sites and declined with increasing disturbance in relation to species' resistance and resilience traits. For taxa with mobile larvae and terrestrial adult stages present at the time of the flood, average persistence was 84% compared to 25% for immobile taxa that lacked terrestrial adults. For two of six species analysed, genomic ersity (allelic richness) declined after the event. For one species it greatly expanded, suggesting resilience via re-colonisation from upstream populations. Thus, while resistance and resilience traits can explain species persistence to extreme disturbance, population genomic change varies among species, challenging generalisations about evolutionary responses to extreme events at landscape scales.
Climate change may impair electricity generation and economic viability of future Amazon hydropower
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2021
Contrasting processes drive gradients in phylodiversity across shallow and deep seafloors
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 2019
The ecological limits of hydrologic alteration (ELOHA): A new framework for developing regional environmental flow standards
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-12-2010
True Size Matters for Conservation: A Robust Method to Determine the Size of Deep-Sea Coral Reefs Shows They Are Typically Small on Seamounts in the Southwest Pacific Ocean
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 03-04-2020
Common Core Themes in Geomorphic, Ecological, and Social Systems
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-06-2013
DOI: 10.1007/S00267-013-0093-X
Abstract: Core themes of geomorphology include: open systems and connectivity feedbacks and complexity spatial differentiation of dominant physical processes within a landscape and legacy effects of historical human use of resources. Core themes of ecology include: open systems and connectivity hierarchical, heterogeneous, dynamic, and context-dependent characteristics of ecological patterns and processes nonlinearity, thresholds, hysteresis, and resilience within ecosystems and human effects. Core themes of environmental governance include: architecture of institutions and decision-making agency, or ability of actors to prescribe behavior of people in relation to the environment adaptiveness of social groups to environmental change accountability and legitimacy of systems of governance allocation of and access to resources and thresholds and feedback loops within environmental policy. Core themes common to these disciplines include connectivity, feedbacks, tipping points or thresholds, and resiliency. Emphasizing these points of disciplinary overlap can facilitate interdisciplinary understanding of complex systems, as well as more effective management of landscapes and ecosystems by highlighting drivers of change within systems. We use a previously published conceptual framework to examine how these core themes can be integrated into interdisciplinary research for human-landscape systems via the ex le of a river.
River restoration
Publisher: American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Date: 10-2005
DOI: 10.1029/2005WR003985
Réponses riveraines à la réduction des débits de crue
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 27-03-2014
Investments under non-stationarity
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-04-2020
Cryptic species diversity reveals biogeographic support for the ‘mountain passes are higher in the tropics’ hypothesis
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 15-06-2016
Abstract: The ‘mountain passes are higher in the tropics’ (MPHT) hypothesis posits that reduced climate variability at low latitudes should select for narrower thermal tolerances, lower dispersal and smaller elevational ranges compared with higher latitudes. These latitudinal differences could increase species richness at low latitudes, but that increase may be largely cryptic, because physiological and dispersal traits isolating populations might not correspond to morphological differences. Yet previous tests of the MPHT hypothesis have not addressed cryptic ersity. We use integrative taxonomy, combining morphology (6136 specimens) and DNA barcoding (1832 specimens) to compare the species richness, cryptic ersity and elevational ranges of mayflies (Ephemeroptera) in the Rocky Mountains (Colorado approx. 40°N) and the Andes (Ecuador approx. 0°). We find higher species richness and smaller elevational ranges in Ecuador than Colorado, but only after quantifying and accounting for cryptic ersity. The opposite pattern is found when comparing ersity based on morphology alone, underscoring the importance of uncovering cryptic species to understand global bio ersity patterns.
Trait synergisms and the rarity, extirpation, and extinction risk of desert fishes
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-2008
DOI: 10.1890/06-1864.1
Abstract: Understanding the causes and consequences of species extinctions is a central goal in ecology. Faced with the difficult task of identifying those species with the greatest need for conservation, ecologists have turned to using predictive suites of ecological and life-history traits to provide reasonable estimates of species extinction risk. Previous studies have linked in idual traits to extinction risk, yet the nonadditive contribution of multiple traits to the entire extinction process, from species rarity to local extirpation to global extinction, has not been examined. This study asks whether trait synergisms predispose native fishes of the Lower Colorado River Basin (USA) to risk of extinction through their effects on rarity and local extirpation and their vulnerability to different sources of threat. Fish species with "slow" life histories (e.g., large body size, long life, and delayed maturity), minimal parental care to offspring, and specialized feeding behaviors are associated with smaller geographic distribution, greater frequency of local extirpation, and higher perceived extinction risk than that expected by simple additive effects of traits in combination. This supports the notion that trait synergisms increase the susceptibility of native fishes to multiple stages of the extinction process, thus making them prone to the multiple jeopardies resulting from a combination of fewer in iduals, narrow environmental tolerances, and long recovery times following environmental change. Given that particular traits, some acting in concert, may differentially predispose native fishes to rarity, extirpation, and extinction, we suggest that management efforts in the Lower Colorado River Basin should be congruent with the life-history requirements of multiple species over large spatial and temporal scales.
Getting to scale with environmental flow assessment: The watershed flow evaluation tool
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 27-06-2012
DOI: 10.1002/RRA.1542
CLASSIFICATION OF NATURAL FLOW REGIMES IN THE EBRO BASIN (SPAIN) BY USING A WIDE RANGE OF HYDROLOGIC PARAMETERS
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-08-2012
DOI: 10.1002/RRA.2598
The Natural Sediment Regime in Rivers: Broadening the Foundation for Ecosystem Management
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 19-02-2015
An experimental test of colonization traits at a patch-scale in Andean Neotropical streams
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 12-09-2023
River flows and water wars: Emerging science for environmental decision making
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-2003
Context-dependent perceptual ranges and their relevance to animal movements in landscapes
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-10-2004
Managing for variability to sustain freshwater ecosystems
Publisher: No publisher found
Date: 2009
Meeting ecological and societal needs for freshwater
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2002
Genetic diversity and gene flow decline with elevation in montane mayflies
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-05-2017
DOI: 10.1038/HDY.2017.23
Development of representative indicators of hydrologic alteration
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2009
Current velocity and spatial scale as determinants of the distribution and abundance of two rheophilic herbivorous insects
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 2001
Simple statistical models can be sufficient for testing hypotheses with population time‐series data
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-2022
DOI: 10.1002/ECE3.9339
Abstract: Time‐series data offer wide‐ranging opportunities to test hypotheses about the physical and biological factors that influence species abundances. Although sophisticated models have been developed and applied to analyze abundance time series, they require information about species detectability that is often unavailable. We propose that in many cases, simpler models are adequate for testing hypotheses. We consider three relatively simple regression models for time series, using simulated and empirical (fish and mammal) datasets. Model A is a conventional generalized linear model of abundance, model B adds a temporal autoregressive term, and model C uses an estimate of population growth rate as a response variable, with the option of including a term for density dependence. All models can be fit using Bayesian and non‐Bayesian methods. Simulation results demonstrated that model C tended to have greater support for long‐lived, lower‐fecundity organisms (K life‐history strategists), while model A, the simplest, tended to be supported for shorter‐lived, high‐fecundity organisms (r life‐history strategists). Analysis of real‐world fish and mammal datasets found that models A, B, and C each enjoyed support for at least some species, but sometimes yielded different insights. In particular, model C indicated effects of predictor variables that were not evident in analyses with models A and B. Bayesian and frequentist models yielded similar parameter estimates and performance. We conclude that relatively simple models are useful for testing hypotheses about the factors that influence abundance in time‐series data, and can be appropriate choices for datasets that lack the information needed to fit more complicated models. When feasible, we advise fitting datasets with multiple models because they can provide complementary information.
A unifying framework for analyzing temporal changes in functional and taxonomic diversity along disturbance gradients
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-08-2021
DOI: 10.1002/ECY.3503
Abstract: Frameworks exclusively considering functional ersity are gaining popularity, as they complement and extend the information provided by taxonomic ersity metrics, particularly in response to disturbance. Taxonomic ersity should be included in functional ersity frameworks to uncover the functional mechanisms causing species loss following disturbance events. We present and test a predictive framework that considers temporal functional and taxonomic ersity responses along disturbance gradients. Our proposed framework allows us to test different multidimensional metrics of taxonomic ersity that can be directly compared to calculated multidimensional functional ersity metrics. It builds on existing functional ersity–disturbance frameworks both by using a gradient approach and by jointly considering taxonomic and functional ersity. We used previously unpublished stream insect community data collected prior to, and for the two years following, an extreme flood event that occurred in 2013. Using 14 northern Colorado mountain streams, we tested our framework and determined that taxonomic ersity metrics calculated using multidimensional methods resulted in concordance between taxonomic and functional ersity responses. By considering functional and taxonomic ersity together and using a gradient approach, we were able to identify some of the mechanisms driving species losses following this extreme disturbance event.
Current velocity and habitat patchiness shape stream herbivore movement
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-10-2006
Sustainable water management under future uncertainty with eco-engineering decision scaling
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 14-09-2016
DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE2765
Regional-scale patterns of deep seafloor biodiversity for conservation assessment
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-01-2020
DOI: 10.1111/DDI.13034
Current-mediated periphytic structure modifies grazer interactions and algal removal
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-10-2012
Narrow thermal tolerance and low dispersal drive higher speciation in tropical mountains
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 05-11-2018
Abstract: Over 50 years ago, Dan Janzen proposed an integrative framework relating latitudinal differences in climate variability to elevational trends in species ersity. We show that tropical species in three independent insect clades have ( i ) narrower thermal breadths, ( ii ) decreased dispersal and higher population structure, and ( iii ) higher cryptic ersity and speciation rates. This research tests all of the key predictions of Janzen’s hypothesis in related taxa. Our work advances the understanding of how climate variability shapes global ersity patterns, moving beyond simple correlations, to mechanistic links between climate, local adaptation, dispersal, and montane species richness.
Drift responses of benthic invertebrates to experimental streamflow variation in a hydrologically stable stream
Publisher: Canadian Science Publishing
Date: 10-1991
DOI: 10.1139/F91-229
Abstract: Field experiments were conducted in the regulated upper Colorado River to assess drift responses of lotic macroinvertebrates to streamflow manipulations. In each of three seasons, drift was collected in one control and two experimental riffles. On the first day, no flow manipulations occurred. Six hours before sunset on the second day, streamflow was simultaneously reduced and elevated in two experimental riffles with instream ersion structures. Following flow elevation, both mean daily drift density and drift rate generally increased for 13 taxa across all seasons. Flow reductions generally induced elevated drift densities for most taxa, but drift rates declined for some taxa. Patterns of diel drift periodicity were less frequently modified by flow manipulations. Taxa with typical nocturnal peaks in drift activity (Baetis spp., Epeorus longimanus, Triznaka signata) generally maintained this pattern despite some increases in diurnal drift. For a few taxa, modification of diel drift patterns occurred, either as nocturnal decreases following reduced flow (Paraleptophlebia heteronea, Ephemerella infrequens) or as diurnal drift increases in response to either elevated flow (Lepidostoma ormea, Chironomidae larvae) or reduced flow (Simuliidae). With some exceptions, observed drift responses could be used to suggest active versus passive processes of drift entry.
Vulnerability of stream community composition and function to projected thermal warming and hydrologic change across ecoregions in the western United States
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-08-2017
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.13437
Abstract: Shifts in bio ersity and ecological processes in stream ecosystems in response to rapid climate change will depend on how numerically and functionally dominant aquatic insect species respond to changes in stream temperature and hydrology. Across 253 minimally perturbed streams in eight ecoregions in the western USA, we modeled the distribution of 88 in idual insect taxa in relation to existing combinations of maximum summer temperature, mean annual streamflow, and their interaction. We used a heat map approach along with downscaled general circulation model (GCM) projections of warming and streamflow change to estimate site-specific extirpation likelihood for each taxon, allowing estimation of whole-community change in streams across these ecoregions. Conservative climate change projections indicate a 30-40% loss of taxa in warmer, drier ecoregions and 10-20% loss in cooler, wetter ecoregions where taxa are relatively buffered from projected warming and hydrologic change. Differential vulnerability of taxa with key functional foraging roles in processing basal resources suggests that climate change has the potential to modify stream trophic structure and function (e.g., alter rates of detrital decomposition and algal consumption), particularly in warmer and drier ecoregions. We show that streamflow change is equally as important as warming in projected risk to stream community composition and that the relative threat posed by these two fundamental drivers varies across ecoregions according to projected gradients of temperature and hydrologic change. Results also suggest that direct human modification of streams through actions such as water abstraction is likely to further exacerbate loss of taxa and ecosystem alteration, especially in drying climates. Management actions to mitigate climate change impacts on stream ecosystems or to proactively adapt to them will require regional calibration, due to geographic variation in insect sensitivity and in exposure to projected thermal warming and hydrologic change.
Shifting dominance of riparian Populus and Tamarix along gradients of flow alteration in western North American rivers
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2010
DOI: 10.1890/08-2251.1
Abstract: Tamarix ramosissima is a naturalized, nonnative plant species which has become widespread along riparian corridors throughout the western United States. We test the hypothesis that the distribution and success of Tamarix result from human modification of river-flow regimes. We conducted a natural experiment in eight ecoregions in arid and semiarid portions of the western United States, measuring Tamarix and native Populus recruitment and abundance at 64 sites along 13 perennial rivers spanning a range of altered flow regimes. We quantified biologically relevant attributes of flow alteration as an integrated measure (the index of flow modification, IFM), which was then used to explain between-site variation in abundance and recruitment of native and nonnative riparian plant species. We found the likelihood of successful recruitment of Tamarix to be highest along unregulated river reaches and to remain high across a gradient of regulated flows. Recruitment probability for Populus, in contrast, was highest under free-flowing conditions and declined abruptly under even slight flow modification (IFM > 0.1). Adult Tamarix was most abundant at intermediate levels of IFM. Populus abundance declined sharply with modest flow regulation (IFM > 0.2) and was not present at the most flow-regulated sites. Dominance of Tamarix was highest along rivers with the most altered flow regimes. At the 16 least regulated sites, Tamarix and Populus were equally abundant. Given observed patterns of Tamarix recruitment and abundance, we infer that Tamarix would likely have naturalized, spread, and established widely in riparian communities in the absence of dam construction, ersions, and flow regulation in western North America. However, Tamarix dominance over native species would likely be less extensive in the absence of human alteration of river-flow regimes. Restoration that combines active mechanical removal of established stands of Tamarix with a program of flow releases conducive to native species establishment and persistence is hypothesized to facilitate the codominance of Populus in reaches where it has become rare. Our findings have implications for planning flow-related stream restoration, for developing realistic expectations for yield on investment in prescribed flow releases, and for planning flow-related interventions that might be possible if control and management of invasive plant species along rivers is a goal.
Deep-sea temperate-tropical faunal transition across uniform environmental gradients
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2020
Machine learning methods without tears: A primer for ecologists
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 06-2008
DOI: 10.1086/587826
Abstract: Machine learning methods, a family of statistical techniques with origins in the field of artificial intelligence, are recognized as holding great promise for the advancement of understanding and prediction about ecological phenomena. These modeling techniques are flexible enough to handle complex problems with multiple interacting elements and typically outcompete traditional approaches (e.g., generalized linear models), making them ideal for modeling ecological systems. Despite their inherent advantages, a review of the literature reveals only a modest use of these approaches in ecology as compared to other disciplines. One potential explanation for this lack of interest is that machine learning techniques do not fall neatly into the class of statistical modeling approaches with which most ecologists are familiar. In this paper, we provide an introduction to three machine learning approaches that can be broadly used by ecologists: classification and regression trees, artificial neural networks, and evolutionary computation. For each approach, we provide a brief background to the methodology, give ex les of its application in ecology, describe model development and implementation, discuss strengths and weaknesses, explore the availability of statistical software, and provide an illustrative ex le. Although the ecological application of machine learning approaches has increased, there remains considerable skepticism with respect to the role of these techniques in ecology. Our review encourages a greater understanding of machin learning approaches and promotes their future application and utilization, while also providing a basis from which ecologists can make informed decisions about whether to select or avoid these approaches in their future modeling endeavors.
Rivers of the Anthropocene?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-2014
Corrigendum to Environmental flows in the Anthropocence
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2014
A global perspective on tropical montane rivers.
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 13-09-2019
Abstract: Tropical montane rivers (TMR) are born in tropical mountains, descend through montane forests, and feed major rivers, floodplains, and oceans. They are characterized by rapid temperature clines and varied flow disturbance regimes, both of which promote habitat heterogeneity, high biological ersity and endemism, and distinct organisms' life-history adaptations. Production, transport, and processing of sediments, nutrients, and carbon are key ecosystem processes connecting high-elevation streams with lowland floodplains, in turn influencing soil fertility and biotic productivity downstream. TMR provide key ecosystem services to hundreds of millions of people in tropical nations. In light of existing human-induced disturbances, including climate change, TMR can be used as natural model systems to examine the effects of rapid changes in abiotic drivers and their influence on bio ersity and ecosystem function.
Lack of evidence for indirect effects from stonefly predators on primary production under future climate warming scenarios
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-04-2022
Variability and convergence in benthic communities along the longitudinal gradients of four physically similar Rocky Mountain streams
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-01-2005
Acute, diel, and annual temperature variability and the thermal biology of ectotherms
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-10-2022
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.16453
Abstract: Global warming is increasing mean temperatures and altering temperature variability at multiple temporal scales. To better understand the consequences of changes in thermal variability for ectotherms it is necessary to consider thermal variation at different time scales (i.e., acute, diel, and annual) and the responses of organisms within and across generations. Thermodynamics constrain acute responses to temperature, but within these constraints and over longer time periods, organisms have the scope to adaptively acclimate or evolve. Yet, hypotheses and predictions about responses to future warming tend not to explicitly consider the temporal scale at which temperature varies. Here, focusing on multicellular ectothermic animals, we argue that consideration of multiple processes and constraints associated with various timescales is necessary to better understand how altered thermal variability because of climate change will affect ectotherms.
Environmental flows in the Anthropocence
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2013
Landscape filters and species traits: Towards mechanistic understanding and prediction in stream ecology
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 06-1997
DOI: 10.2307/1468026
Can dams be designed for sustainability? Dam design on the Mekong River can help to support water, energy, and fisheries needs
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 08-12-2017
Abstract: Dam design on the Mekong River can help to support water, energy, and fisheries needs
Extreme flooding decreases stream consumer autochthony by increasing detrital resource availability
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-08-2018
DOI: 10.1111/FWB.13177
Ecological and evolutionary consequences of biotic homogenization
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2004
DOI: 10.1016/J.TREE.2003.09.010
Abstract: Biotic homogenization, the gradual replacement of native biotas by locally expanding non-natives, is a global process that diminishes floral and faunal distinctions among regions. Although patterns of homogenization have been well studied, their specific ecological and evolutionary consequences remain unexplored. We argue that our current perspective on biotic homogenization should be expanded beyond a simple recognition of species ersity loss, towards a synthesis of higher order effects. Here, we explore three distinct forms of homogenization (genetic, taxonomic and functional), and discuss their immediate and future impacts on ecological and evolutionary processes. Our goal is to initiate future research that investigates the broader conservation implications of homogenization and to promote a proactive style of adaptive management that engages the human component of the anthropogenic blender that is currently mixing the biota on Earth.
Colorado River Basin
Publisher: Elsevier
Date: 2005
Temperature dependence of metabolic rate in tropical and temperate aquatic insects: Support for the Climate Variability Hypothesis in mayflies but not stoneflies
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-11-2021
DOI: 10.1111/GCB.15400
A hydrogeography of unregulated streams in the United States and an examination of scale-dependence in some hydrological descriptors
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-1996
An Objective Method to Prioritize Socio-Environmental Water Management Tradeoffs Using Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-10-2017
DOI: 10.1002/RRA.3103
Stream hydrological and ecological responses to climate change assessed with an artificial neural network
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-1996
Streams Past and Future: Fluvial Responses to Rapid Environmental Change in the Context of Historical Variation
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-07-2012
Current velocity and invertebrate grazing regulate stream algae: Results of an in situ electrical exclusion
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 2003
Global Biodiversity Scenarios for the Year 2100
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 10-03-2000
DOI: 10.1126/SCIENCE.287.5459.1770
Abstract: Scenarios of changes in bio ersity for the year 2100 can now be developed based on scenarios of changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, climate, vegetation, and land use and the known sensitivity of bio ersity to these changes. This study identified a ranking of the importance of drivers of change, a ranking of the biomes with respect to expected changes, and the major sources of uncertainties. For terrestrial ecosystems, land-use change probably will have the largest effect, followed by climate change, nitrogen deposition, biotic exchange, and elevated carbon dioxide concentration. For freshwater ecosystems, biotic exchange is much more important. Mediterranean climate and grassland ecosystems likely will experience the greatest proportional change in bio ersity because of the substantial influence of all drivers of bio ersity change. Northern temperate ecosystems are estimated to experience the least bio ersity change because major land-use change has already occurred. Plausible changes in bio ersity in other biomes depend on interactions among the causes of bio ersity change. These interactions represent one of the largest uncertainties in projections of future bio ersity change.
A proposed framework to systematically design and objectively evaluate non-dominated restoration tradeoffs for watershed planning and management
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2016
Life-history strategies predict fish invasions and extirpations in the Colorado River Basin
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2006
DOI: 10.1890/05-0330
Emergence and flight activity of alpine stream insects in two years with contrasting winter snowpack
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 11-2008
Placing global stream flow variability in geographic and geomorphic contexts
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-2006
DOI: 10.1002/RRA.902
Gradient analysis of zoobenthos community structure along a mountain stream continuum
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 1994
Modeled intermittency risk for small streams in the Upper Colorado River Basin under climate change
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2015
Squeezing the most out of existing literature: A systematic re-analysis of published evidence on ecological responses to altered flows
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-08-2013
DOI: 10.1111/FWB.12234
Tackling inconsistencies among freshwater invertebrate trait databases
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-11-2022
DOI: 10.1111/FWB.13840
Abstract: Use of invertebrate traits rather than species composition may facilitate large‐scale comparisons of community structure and responses to disturbance in freshwater ecology because the same traits potentially occur everywhere. In recent years, comprehensive invertebrate trait databases have been established at different scales (e.g., regions, continents). The wide availability of invertebrate trait data supports large‐scale studies. However, a number of data‐related issues complicate the use of invertebrate traits for ecological studies. It is uncertain how harmonising varying trait definitions among databases might influence subsequent identification of trait–environment relationships. Furthermore, there have been few comparisons of trait aggregation approaches with expert‐assigned trait affinities. We describe inconsistencies in the definitions of traits used to create freshwater invertebrate trait databases in Europe, North America, New Zealand, and Australia. Based on our comparisons of these databases, we established four novel trait datasets by harmonising definitions of commonly used traits. Next, we used two of these datasets to compare aggregated traits obtained by different aggregation methods with traits assigned by experts, both at the family level. The trait aggregation methods that we compared used either the mean or the median and different weightings. We further explored the effects of harmonisation and trait aggregation by re‐analysing data from a case study. We found that among databases, trait definitions often differed because varying numbers of traits were used to describe particular functions (e.g., respiration traits) and the way those functions were described also varied (e.g., for feeding mode some databases focused on the food source, whereas others focused on mouthpart morphology). The coding to describe traits (binary, fuzzy) also varied among databases. Our comparison of different aggregation methods showed that family‐level aggregated and expert‐assigned traits were similar, especially when traits were aggregated based on the median of trait values of taxa within a family. The case study showed that harmonised and aggregated data identified similar trait–environment relationships to non‐aggregated data. However, harmonised and aggregated data yielded only partially similar values for functional ersity metrics when compared to the case study results. By identifying inconsistencies in trait definitions we hope to motivate the development of standardised definitions for invertebrate traits. Our results also illustrate the usefulness of harmonised datasets for ecological study and provide guidance for the circumstances under which the choice of trait aggregation method is important.
Functional redundancy in heterogeneous environments: Implications for conservation
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-05-2001
How dams can go with the flow
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 09-09-2016
Abstract: Small changes to water flow regimes from dams can help to restore river ecosystems
Limiting nutrients drive mountain stream ecosystem processes along an elevation gradient
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 06-2021
DOI: 10.1086/714441
Perspective: Communicating our science to influence public policy
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 09-2008
DOI: 10.1899/07-051.1
Incorporating ecological knowledge into ecoinformatics: An example of modeling hierarchically structured aquatic communities with neural networks
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2006
Assessment of stream ecosystem function and sensitivity in the Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 04-06-2007
DOI: 10.1007/S00267-006-0168-Z
Abstract: This paper presents a hierarchical analysis of stream ecosystem distribution and sensitivity to natural and anthropogenic disturbances for the Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming. We designated stream gradient, flow regime, and lithology as environmental parameters that would result in the most robust, readily applied, and parsimonious description of physical and chemical characteristics of in idual stream segments. We used these parameters to map the spatial distribution and relative abundance of stream habitats in the study area. We then used the proportion of each sixth-level hydrologic unit boundary comprised by each category of stream gradient, flow regime, and lithology as input to an agglomerative cluster analysis, which identified six clusters for the 74 watersheds intersecting or within the national forest boundary. Five of the six clusters have predominantly high gradient streams and runoff dominated by snowmelt or mixed snowmelt and rainfall. Most watersheds on the Bighorn National Forest are sensitive to alterations in water supply because of the relatively small size of streams. Although watersheds are generally less sensitive to changed sediment supply, low-gradient stream segments create sensitive sites within in idual watersheds. Field verification studies indicate that this approach reasonably characterizes physical channel properties and biological associations for the study area.
Growth of an invertebrate shredder on native (Populus) and non-native (Tamarix, Elaeagnus) leaf litter
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 30-01-2008
Hydrologic variation with land use across the contiguous United States: Geomorphic and ecological consequences for stream ecosystems
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2006
The replacement of Stenonema spp. By Caenis diminuta walker as the numerical dominant in the mayfly assemblage of a thermally-stressed stream
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 06-1985
A river that flows free connects up in 4D
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-2019
Life history trait diversity of native freshwater fishes in North America
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-08-2010
Food and habitat relationships of Claassenia sabulosa (Plecoptera: Perlidae) in the upper Colorado River, Colorado
Publisher: Western North American Naturalist
Date: 2007
Seasonal shifts in the importance of bottom–up and top–down factors on stream periphyton community structure
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-11-2018
DOI: 10.1111/OIK.05844
The challenge of providing environmental flow rules to sustain river ecosystems
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-2006
DOI: 10.1890/1051-0761(2006)016[1311:TCOPEF]2.0.CO;2
Abstract: Accounting for natural differences in flow variability among rivers, and understanding the importance of this for the protection of freshwater bio ersity and maintenance of goods and services that rivers provide, is a great challenge for water managers and scientists. Nevertheless, despite considerable progress in understanding how flow variability sustains river ecosystems, there is a growing temptation to ignore natural system complexity in favor of simplistic, static, environmental flow "rules" to resolve pressing river management issues. We argue that such approaches are misguided and will ultimately contribute to further degradation of river ecosystems. In the absence of detailed empirical information of environmental flow requirements for rivers, we propose a generic approach that incorporates essential aspects of natural flow variability shared across particular classes of rivers that can be validated with empirical biological data and other information in a calibration process. We argue that this approach can bridge the gap between simple hydrological "rules of thumb" and more comprehensive environmental flow assessments and experimental flow restoration projects.
Theory, methods and tools for determining environmental flows for riparian vegetation: riparian vegetation‐flow response guilds
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-12-2009
Distribution of invasive and native riparian woody plants across the western USA in relation to climate, river flow, floodplain geometry and patterns of introduction
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-03-2015
DOI: 10.1111/ECOG.01285
How dams vary and why it matters for the emerging science of dam removal
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 2002
Identifying multiple factors limiting long-term success in environmental watering
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2020
DOI: 10.1071/MF18461
Abstract: Environmental watering is frequently used to achieve specific ecological objectives, such as triggering spawning or seed germination. These short-term objectives are often met, but longer-term objectives, such as population growth, may not be, especially where multiple hydrological and non-hydrological factors influence success. We propose a framework to identify these factors in space and time. Our framework steps users through identifying possible inhibiting (strictures) and supporting (promoters) factors, and placing these factors in their spatial and temporal context. This allows users to identify potential limiting factors that may require additional intervention, or render the original watering action unsustainable. We illustrate the framework with ex les of a floodplain tree (black box, Eucalyptus largiflorens), colonial nesting waterbird (royal spoonbill, Platalea regia) and large-bodied migratory fish (golden perch, Macquaria ambigua). The framework explores strictures and promoters for major life-history stages, emphasising the need to support and protect all stages if objectives include population maintenance or growth. In this way, the framework can document existing mental models and can be used as the basis of a risk portfolio, a prioritisation tool or future quantitative models. Thus, the framework enables in idual management actions to be better grounded in a broader context, increasing the likelihood of achieving long-term ecological objectives.
How to avoid train wrecks when using science in environmental problem solving
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 2002
Leaf litter decomposition across broad thermal gradients in southeastern coastal plain streams and swamps
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 12-1986
Physical Habitat Modeling and Ecohydrological Tools
Publisher: Elsevier
Date: 2017
Reducing adverse impacts of Amazon hydropower expansion.
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 18-02-2022
Abstract: Proposed hydropower dams at more than 350 sites throughout the Amazon require strategic evaluation of trade-offs between the numerous ecosystem services provided by Earth's largest and most bio erse river basin. These services are spatially variable, hence collective impacts of newly built dams depend strongly on their configuration. We use multiobjective optimization to identify portfolios of sites that simultaneously minimize impacts on river flow, river connectivity, sediment transport, fish ersity, and greenhouse gas emissions while achieving energy production goals. We find that uncoordinated, dam-by-dam hydropower expansion has resulted in forgone ecosystem service benefits. Minimizing further damage from hydropower development requires considering erse environmental impacts across the entire basin, as well as cooperation among Amazonian nations. Our findings offer a transferable model for the evaluation of hydropower expansion in transboundary basins.
Forecasting faunal and floral homogenization associated with human population geography in North America
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2006
Beyond the concrete: Accounting for ecosystem services from free-flowing rivers
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2014
Toward Improved Understanding of Streamflow Effects on Freshwater Fishes
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-03-2022
DOI: 10.1002/FSH.10731
Abstract: Understanding the effects of hydrology on fish populations is essential to managing for native fish conservation. However, despite decades of research illustrating streamflow influences on fish habitat, reproduction, and survival, biologists remain challenged when tasked with predicting how fish populations will respond to changes in flow regimes. This uncertainty stems from insufficient understanding of the context‐dependent mechanisms underlying fish responses to, for ex le, periods of reduced flow or altered frequency of high‐flow events. We aim to address this gap by drawing on previous research to hypothesize mechanisms by which low and high flows influence fish populations and communities, identifying challenges that stem from data limitations and ecological complexity, and outlining research directions that can advance an empirical basis for prediction. Focusing flow ecology research on testing and refining mechanistic hypotheses can help narrow management uncertainties and better support species conservation in changing flow regimes.
Toward a Mechanistic Understanding and Prediction of Biotic Homogenization
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 10-2003
DOI: 10.1086/378212
Abstract: The widespread replacement of native species with cosmopolitan, nonnative species is homogenizing the global fauna and flora. While the empirical study of biotic homogenization is substantial and growing, theoretical aspects have yet to be explored. Consequently, the breadth of possible ecological mechanisms that can shape current and future patterns and rates of homogenization remain largely unknown. Here, we develop a conceptual model that describes 14 potential scenarios by which species invasions and/or extinctions can lead to various trajectories of biotic homogenization (increased community similarity) or differentiation (decreased community similarity) we then use a simulation approach to explore the model's predictions. We found changes in community similarity to vary with the type and number of nonnative and native species, the historical degree of similarity among the communities, and, to a lesser degree, the richness of the recipient communities. Homogenization is greatest when similar species invade communities, causing either no extinction or differential extinction of native species. The model predictions are consistent with current empirical data for fish, bird, and plant communities and therefore may represent the dominant mechanisms of contemporary homogenization. We present a unifying model illustrating how the balance between invading and extinct species dictates the outcome of biotic homogenization. We conclude by discussing a number of critical but largely unrecognized issues that bear on the empirical study of biotic homogenization, including the importance of spatial scale, temporal scale, and data resolution. We argue that the study of biotic homogenization needs to be placed in a more mechanistic and predictive framework in order for studies to provide adequate guidance in conservation efforts to maintain regional distinctness of the global biota.
Adaptation to natural flow regimes
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2004
DOI: 10.1016/J.TREE.2003.10.002
Abstract: Floods and droughts are important features of most running water ecosystems, but the alteration of natural flow regimes by recent human activities, such as dam building, raises questions related to both evolution and conservation. Among organisms inhabiting running waters, what adaptations exist for surviving floods and droughts? How will the alteration of the frequency, timing and duration of flow extremes affect flood- and drought-adapted organisms? How rapidly can populations evolve in response to altered flow regimes? Here, we identify three modes of adaptation (life history, behavioral and morphological) that plants and animals use to survive floods and/or droughts. The mode of adaptation that an organism has determines its vulnerability to different kinds of flow regime alteration. The rate of evolution in response to flow regime alteration remains an open question. Because humans have now altered the flow regimes of most rivers and many streams, understanding the link between fitness and flow regime is crucial for the effective management and restoration of running water ecosystems.
Beyond the natural flow regime?
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 26-10-2018
DOI: 10.1111/FWB.13038
Towards a systems approach for river basin management
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 17-01-2019
DOI: 10.1002/RRA.3242
Influence of experimental, environmental, and geographic factors on nutrient‐diffusing substrate experiments in running waters
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-08-2017
DOI: 10.1111/FWB.12989
Multiscale effects of flow regime and habitat and their interaction on fish assemblage structure in eastern Australia
Publisher: Canadian Science Publishing
Date: 10-2007
DOI: 10.1139/F07-108
Abstract: We examine the multiscale influence of environmental and hydrological features of the riverine landscape on spatial and temporal variation in fish assemblages in eastern Australia. Multiresponse artificial neural network models provided accurate predictions of fish assemblages in the Mary River based on species presence–absence data (mean Bray–Curtis similarity between predicted and observed composition = 84%) but were less accurate when based on species relative abundance or biomass (mean similarity = 62% and 59%, respectively). Landscape- and local-scale habitat variables (e.g., catchment area and riparian canopy cover) and characteristics of the long-term flow regime (e.g., variability and predictability of flows) were more important predictors of fish assemblages than variables describing the short-term history of hydrological events. The relative importance of these variables was broadly similar for predicting species occurrence, relative abundance, or biomass. The transferability of the Mary River predictive models to the nearby Albert River was high for species presence–absence (i.e., closer match between predicted and observed data) compared with species abundances or biomass. This suggests that the same landscape-scale features are important determinants of distribution of in idual species in both rivers but that interactions between landscape, hydrology, and local habitat features that collectively determine abundance and biomass may differ.
A new wave of marine evidence-based management: Emerging challenges and solutions to transform monitoring, evaluating, and reporting
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 13-12-2018
Abstract: Sustainable management and conservation of the world’s oceans requires effective monitoring, evaluation, and reporting (MER). Despite the growing political and social imperative for these activities, there are some persistent and emerging challenges that marine practitioners face in undertaking these activities. In 2015, a erse group of marine practitioners came together to discuss the emerging challenges associated with marine MER, and potential solutions to address these challenges. Three emerging challenges were identified: (i) the need to incorporate environmental, social and economic dimensions in evaluation and reporting (ii) the implications of big data, creating challenges in data management and interpretation and (iii) dealing with uncertainty throughout MER activities. We point to key solutions to address these challenges across MER activities: (i) integrating models into marine management systems to help understand, interpret, and manage the environmental and socio-economic dimensions of uncertain and complex marine systems (ii) utilizing big data sources and new technologies to collect, process, store, and analyze data and (iii) applying approaches to evaluate, account for, and report on the multiple sources and types of uncertainty. These solutions point towards a potential for a new wave of evidence-based marine management, through more innovative monitoring, rigorous evaluation and transparent reporting. Effective collaboration and institutional support across the science–management–policy interface will be crucial to deal with emerging challenges, and implement the tools and approaches embedded within these solutions.
Ecological response to and management of increased flooding caused by climate change
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 24-05-2002
Abstract: River channels and their flood plains are among the most naturally dynamic ecosystems on earth, in large part due to periodic flooding. The components of a river's natural flood regime (magnitude, frequency, duration and timing of peak flows) interact to maintain great habitat heterogeneity and to promote high species ersity and ecosystem productivity. Flood regimes vary within and among rivers, depending on catchment size, geology and regional hydroclimatology. Geographic variation in contemporary flood regimes results in river-to-river variation in ecosystem structure, and therefore in potential river ecosystem response to increased future flooding. The greater the deviation in flood regime from contemporary or recent historical conditions, the greater the expected ecological alteration. Ecological response will also depend on how extensively humans have altered natural river dynamics through land-use practices. Ex les of human-caused changes in flood regime (e.g. urbanization, agricultural practices) provide analogues to explore the ecological implications of region-specific climate change. In many settings where humans have severely modified rivers (e.g. through leveeing), more frequent larger floods will work to re-establish connections with severed flood-plain and riparian wetlands in human-dominated river valleys. Developing and implementing non-structural flood-management policies based on ecological principles can benefit river ecosystems, as well as human society.
A General Approach to Predicting Ecological Responses to Environmental Flows: Making Best Use of the Literature, Expert Knowledge, and Monitoring Data
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 29-08-2015
DOI: 10.1002/RRA.2832
PREDICTING HABITAT RESPONSE TO FLOW USING GENERALIZED HABITAT MODELS FOR TROUT IN ROCKY MOUNTAIN STREAMS
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-06-2013
DOI: 10.1002/RRA.2678
Climate change and freshwater fauna extinction risk
Publisher: Island Press/Center for Resource Economics
Date: 2013
Incorporating social preferences into the ecological limits of hydrologic alteration (ELOHA ): a case study in the Yampa‐White River basin, Colorado
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-06-2015
DOI: 10.1111/FWB.12619
Ecological processes driving biotic homogenization: testing a mechanistic model using fish faunas
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 07-2004
DOI: 10.1890/03-3131
The network dynamics hypothesis: How channel networks structure riverine habitats
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 2004
Prepare river ecosystems for an uncertain future
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-2019
Examining spatial concordance of genetic and species diversity patterns to evaluate the role of dispersal limitation in structuring headwater metacommunities
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 03-2011
DOI: 10.1899/10-035.1
Determinants of food resource assimilation by stream insects along a tropical elevation gradient
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26-04-2018
DOI: 10.1007/S00442-018-4142-2
Abstract: Food resource availability varies along gradients of elevation where riparian vegetative cover exerts control on the relative availability of allochthonous and autochthonous resources in streams. Still, little is known about how elevation gradients can alter the availability and quality of resources and how stream food webs respond. We s led habitat characteristics, stable isotope signatures (δ
Functional trait niches of North American lotic insects: Traits-based ecological applications in light of phylogenetic relationships
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Date: 12-2006
Size structure of the metazoan community in a Piedmont stream
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-1993
DOI: 10.1007/BF00323491
Aquatic insect β-diversity is not dependent on elevation in Southern Rocky Mountain streams
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 20-11-2016
DOI: 10.1111/FWB.12693
A structured and dynamic framework to advance traits-based theory and prediction in ecology
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-02-2010
DOI: 10.1111/J.1461-0248.2010.01444.X
Abstract: Predicting changes in community composition and ecosystem function in a rapidly changing world is a major research challenge in ecology. Traits-based approaches have elicited much recent interest, yet in idual studies are not advancing a more general, predictive ecology. Significant progress will be facilitated by adopting a coherent theoretical framework comprised of three elements: an underlying trait distribution, a performance filter defining the fitness of traits in different environments, and a dynamic projection of the performance filter along some environmental gradient. This framework allows changes in the trait distribution and associated modifications to community composition or ecosystem function to be predicted across time or space. The structure and dynamics of the performance filter specify two key criteria by which we judge appropriate quantitative methods for testing traits-based hypotheses. Bayesian multilevel models, dynamical systems models and hybrid approaches meet both these criteria and have the potential to meaningfully advance traits-based ecology.
River ecosystem conceptual models and non‐perennial rivers: A critical review
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-08-2020
DOI: 10.1002/WAT2.1473
Abstract: Conceptual models underpin river ecosystem research. However, current models focus on continuously flowing rivers and few explicitly address characteristics such as flow cessation and drying. The applicability of existing conceptual models to nonperennial rivers that cease to flow (intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams, IRES) has not been evaluated. We reviewed 18 models, finding that they collectively describe main drivers of biogeochemical and ecological patterns and processes longitudinally (upstream‐downstream), laterally (channel‐riparian‐floodplain), vertically (surface water‐groundwater), and temporally across local and landscape scales. However, perennial rivers are longitudinally continuous while IRES are longitudinally discontinuous. Whereas perennial rivers have bidirectional lateral connections between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, in IRES, this connection is unidirectional for much of the time, from terrestrial‐to‐aquatic only. Vertical connectivity between surface and subsurface water occurs bidirectionally and is temporally consistent in perennial rivers. However, in IRES, this exchange is temporally variable, and can become unidirectional during drying or rewetting phases. Finally, drying adds another dimension of flow variation to be considered across temporal and spatial scales in IRES, much as flooding is considered as a temporally and spatially dynamic process in perennial rivers. Here, we focus on ways in which existing models could be modified to accommodate drying as a fundamental process that can alter these patterns and processes across spatial and temporal dimensions in streams. This perspective is needed to support river science and management in our era of rapid global change, including increasing duration, frequency, and occurrence of drying. This article is categorized under: Water and Life Nature of Freshwater Ecosystems Water and Life Stresses and Pressures on Ecosystems Science of Water Hydrological Processes
Physical habitat template of lotic systems: Recovery in the context of historical pattern of spatiotemporal heterogeneity
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-1990
DOI: 10.1007/BF02394714
Legacies, lags and long‐term trends: Effective flow restoration in a changed and changing world
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 03-10-2017
DOI: 10.1111/FWB.13029
Increased methionine sulfoxide content of apoA-I in type 1 diabetes
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2008
Homogenization of regional river dynamics by dams and global biodiversity implications
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 03-04-2007
Abstract: Global bio ersity in river and riparian ecosystems is generated and maintained by geographic variation in stream processes and fluvial disturbance regimes, which largely reflect regional differences in climate and geology. Extensive construction of dams by humans has greatly d ened the seasonal and interannual streamflow variability of rivers, thereby altering natural dynamics in ecologically important flows on continental to global scales. The cumulative effects of modification to regional-scale environmental templates caused by dams is largely unexplored but of critical conservation importance. Here, we use 186 long-term streamflow records on intermediate-sized rivers across the continental United States to show that dams have homogenized the flow regimes on third- through seventh-order rivers in 16 historically distinctive hydrologic regions over the course of the 20th century. This regional homogenization occurs chiefly through modification of the magnitude and timing of ecologically critical high and low flows. For 317 undammed reference rivers, no evidence for homogenization was found, despite documented changes in regional precipitation over this period. With an estimated average density of one dam every 48 km of third- through seventh-order river channel in the United States, dams arguably have a continental scale effect of homogenizing regionally distinct environmental templates, thereby creating conditions that favor the spread of cosmopolitan, nonindigenous species at the expense of locally adapted native biota. Quantitative analyses such as ours provide the basis for conservation and management actions aimed at restoring and maintaining native bio ersity and ecosystem function and resilience for regionally distinct ecosystems at continental to global scales.
The Brisbane Declaration and Global Action Agenda on Environmental Flows (2018)
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 02-07-2018
Designing flows to enhance ecosystem functioning in heavily altered rivers
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-10-2020
DOI: 10.1002/EAP.2005
Flow regime alterations under changing climate in two river basins: Implications for freshwater ecosystems
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2005
DOI: 10.1002/RRA.855
Identifying indicators and essential variables for marine ecosystems
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2015
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