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October 8, 2018
Comments Off on How the food web affects river restoration
River restoration commonly concentrates on improving habitat quality for threatened fish populations. However, because stream fish are strongly influenced by food availability, competition and predation, a case can be made for also incorporating food web modelling into the restoration process. A group of environmental scientists developed an ecosystem model and applied it to a river-floodplain […]
October 8, 2018
Comments Off on What drives regional differences in streamflow?
Typically, large-scale models of stream flow take into account the interaction between climate and vegetation (which determines evapotranspiration) and landscape features that dictate how non-evaporated water is diverted to soil, groundwater and overland flow. However, there are often strong spatial variations in streamflow drivers, which can limit the usefulness of global models. Researchers drew on […]
July 5, 2018
Comments Off on The magical diatom diet
In forested headwater streams, detritus derived from decaying plant material is the primary source of energy driving the aquatic ecosystem, and most studies of such systems have focussed on the fate of leaf litter, the main resource. However, because the food quality of detritus is extremely low it’s unclear how headwater streams support their biological […]
July 5, 2018
Comments Off on How land plants control water plants
While terrestrial ecosystems rely on rainfall infiltration for their water supply, streamside ecosystems rely on the accumulation of surface and subsurface runoff in the riparian zone and the channel network. Rainfall that manages to percolate through the soil profile recharges aquifers, and these sustain streamflow and riparian and aquatic ecosystems during dry periods. Focussing on […]
July 5, 2018
Comments Off on How delayed is the flow-on effect?
It’s generally accepted that river flows have a major influence on the structure of stream communities, but what’s the lag time from river discharge to community expression? This question is particularly relevant for headwater streams that are vulnerable to seasonal drying or the over-extraction of groundwater, where changes in flow often lead to successional changes […]
July 5, 2018
There are concerns that human impacts on freshwater systems – particularly temperature increases linked to climate change and nutrient enrichment caused by run-off and pollution – are encouraging the spread of blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) capable of generating toxic blooms that threaten human and animal health. One such case is the recent spread of Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii, […]
October 8, 2018
Comments Off on Getting the message across