Journal ArticleDOI
The role of disturbance in stream ecology.
Vincent H. Resh,Arthur V. Brown,Alan P. Covich,Martin E. Gurtz,Hiram W. Li,G. Wayne Minshall,Seth R. Reice,Andrew L. Sheldon,J. Bruce Wallace,Robert C. Wissmar +9 more
TLDR
In this paper, the authors define disturbance in stream ecosystems to be: any relatively discrete event in time that is characterized by a frequency, intensity, and severity outside a predictable range, and that disrupts ecosystem, community, or population structure and changes resources or the physical environment.Abstract:
We define disturbance in stream ecosystems to be: any relatively discrete event in time that is characterized by a frequency, intensity, and severity outside a predictable range, and that disrupts ecosystem, community, or population structure and changes resources or the physical environment. Of the three major hypotheses relating disturbance to lotic community structure, the dynamic equilibrium hypothesis appears to be generally applicable, although specific studies support the intermediate disturbance hypothesis and the equilibrium model. Differences in disturbance frequency between lentic and lotic systems may explain why biotic interactions are more apparent in lakes than in streams. Responses to both natural and anthropogenic disturbances vary regionally, as illustrated by examples from the mid-continent, Pacific northwest, and southeastern United States. Based on a generalized framework of climatic-biogeochemical characteristics, two features are considered to be most significant in choosing streams...read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
The Natural Flow Regime
N. LeRoy Poff,N. LeRoy Poff,J. David Allan,Mark B. Bain,James R. Karr,Karen L. Prestegaard,Brian Richter,Richard E. Sparks,Julie C. Stromberg +8 more
TL;DR: In this article, Naiman et al. pointed out that harnessing of streams and rivers comes at great cost: Many rivers no longer support socially valued native species or sustain healthy ecosystems that provide important goods and services.
Journal ArticleDOI
Basic principles and ecological consequences of altered flow regimes for aquatic biodiversity.
Stuart E. Bunn,Angela Arthington +1 more
TL;DR: This literature review has focused this literature review around four key principles to highlight the important mechanisms that link hydrology and aquatic biodiversity and to illustrate the consequent impacts of altered flow regimes.
Journal ArticleDOI
Ecological responses to altered flow regimes: a literature review to inform the science and management of environmental flows
TL;DR: In an effort to develop quantitative relationships between various kinds of flow alteration and ecological responses, this paper reviewed 165 papers published over the last four decades, with a focus on more recent papers.
Journal ArticleDOI
How much water does a river need
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors proposed a new approach for setting streamflow-based river ecosystem management targets and this method is called the "Range of Variability Approach" (RVA), which derives from aquatic ecology theory concerning the critical role of hydrological variability, and associated characteristics of timing, frequency, duration and rates of change, in sustaining aquatic ecosystems.
Journal ArticleDOI
Homogenization of regional river dynamics by dams and global biodiversity implications.
TL;DR: Long-term streamflow records are used 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.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The River Continuum Concept
TL;DR: It is hypothesized that producer and consumer communities characteristic of a given river reach become established in harmony with the dynamic physical conditions of the channel.
Journal ArticleDOI
Pseudoreplication and the Design of Ecological Field Experiments
TL;DR: Suggestions are offered to statisticians and editors of ecological journals as to how ecologists' under- standing of experimental design and statistics might be improved.
Journal ArticleDOI
Diversity in tropical rain forests and coral reefs.
TL;DR: The commonly observed high diversity of trees in tropical rain forests and corals on tropical reefs is a nonequilibrium state which, if not disturbed further, will progress toward a low-diversity equilibrium community as mentioned in this paper.
Book
Plant Strategies and Vegetation Processes
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present plant strategies in the established phase and the regenerative phase in the emerging phase, respectively, and discuss the relationship between the two phases: primary strategies and secondary strategies.