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Coarse woody debris (CWD) derived from shoreline trees provides an important, spatially complex habitat and a food source for lake-dwelling organisms. Here are some interesting facts about lake CWD, taken from a recent review paper: In the absence of the physical action of flowing water, CWD breaks down more slowly in lakes than in streams. […]
June 19, 2017
Ecological connectivity – the exchange of organisms between habitat patches or subpopulations – has an influence on many key processes, including population dynamics, nutrient flux, disease transmission, species invasions, food-web interactions, genetic isolation and the maintenance of biodiversity. A recent study reviewed ways in which graph theory has been used to investigate how human activities […]
June 19, 2017
Most studies of food patch choice by foraging animals have assumed that the patches in question are separate and well-defined. However, in many cases, predators feed in continuous habitats without obvious, discrete patches, and researchers are forced to choose an arbitrary spatial scale when calculating prey densities and interpreting the impacts of predators. An important […]
March 27, 2017
Comments Off on Herbivory is important in freshwater systems
Until the 1990s it was believed that, in the main, freshwater and marine plants were connected to aquatic food webs only indirectly, through the breakdown of decaying vegetation by decomposers. However, over the last two decades there’s been a growing realisation that the activities of aquatic herbivores in consuming plants and channeling the derived nutrients […]
March 27, 2017
Comments Off on How fishing changes catchability
The bolder members of a fish population – often defined as those most willing to continue to forage under the threat of predation – tend to be relatively exploratory, aggressive, territorial, and enjoy higher rates of food intake and specific growth than more timid individuals. However, their larger size makes bold fish more vulnerable to […]
March 27, 2017
Comments Off on Unravelling trends in stream nitrogen
Oxides of nitrogen derived from agriculture, industry and emissions from the burning of fossil fuels fall out from the atmosphere and enter terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. Over the last century the deposition of reactive nitrogen has increased three to five times, and this is reflected in a general global increase in stream nitrogen concentrations. However, at […]
December 13, 2016
Comments Off on How river transport affects dissolved organic matter
In most rivers, the downstream transport of dissolved organic matter (DOM) makes large amounts of energy available to aquatic ecosystems. The River Continuum Concept (RCC) of Vannote et al. (1980) provided a useful framework for studying the influence of organic material from headwater streams on the structure and function of downstream ecosystems. The RCC hypothesized […]
June 19, 2017
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