Scaling climate, connectivity, and communities in streams
StreamCLIMES is a collaborative research project with Michael Bogan at the University of Arizona, Meryl Mims at Virginia Tech, Ben Ruddell and Abe Springer at Northern Arizona University, Albert Ruhi at the University of California Berkeley, Robert Pastel at Michigan Tech University, and Dan Allen, Tom Neeson, and Yang Hong at the University of Oklahoma.
Together we will conduct one of the first coordinated projects to investigate how drying affects stream ecosystems in different climates across the southern half of the US. The work includes a significant field based component that integrates NEON stream research sites, where we will document the biodiversity, food web structure, and genetic connectivity of stream benthic invertebrate communities at perennial (continuously flowing) and intermittent (non-continuously flowing) stream sites. We will also develop a smartphone app designed for researchers and citizen scientists to map wet and dry reaches of streams and rivers. Later phases will include developing hydrological models that will predict stream drying patterns in the study river systems under different climate scenarios including climate oscillations and climate change, and spatial ecological models that will integrate field-collected data and hydrological model outputs to project how stream ecosystems will respond to large scale climate variability. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation Macrosystem Biology program and will run from 2019-2023.
Dry Rivers Research Coordination Network
Life is simply different in the absence of water, especially for life in rivers and streams. And yet half of the Earth’s rivers dry or stop flowing, which are called “intermittent rivers.” Historically intermittent rivers have been understudied or even ignored by researchers studying river ecology or river hydrology, who typically study rivers that always flow. Research has begun to show that the hydrology and ecology of intermittent rivers are very different from rivers that always flow. This means our current scientific understanding of streams and rivers is not accurate, as it is biased towards the half of the Earth’s rivers that continuously flow and against the half that do not. The Dry Rivers Research Coordination Network will organize a series of expert workgroups that will synthesize the growing body of research on intermittent river hydrology and ecology. These workgroups will examine this research to produce generalized frameworks that can explain how intermittent river hydrologic and ecologic systems work. This research is important because intermittent rivers are often overlooked or excluded from water management plans due to uncertainty about their hydrologic and ecological importance. Indeed, there is ongoing controversy regarding whether or not intermittent rivers should be included in the scope of management under US Environmental Protection Agency. This project will run from 2018-2022 and is funded by the National Science Foundation. Collaborators on this project include Daniel Allen, Kate Boersma, Michael Bogan, Thibault Datry, Ken Fritz, Sarah Godsey, Stephanie Kampf, Meryl Mims, Julian Olden, Albert Ruhi, Adam Ward, Margaret Zimmer, Emily Bernhardt, Walter Dodds, Jay Jones, and others. You can follow us on twitter @DryRiversRCN.
StreamCLIMES is a collaborative research project with Michael Bogan at the University of Arizona, Meryl Mims at Virginia Tech, Ben Ruddell and Abe Springer at Northern Arizona University, Albert Ruhi at the University of California Berkeley, Robert Pastel at Michigan Tech University, and Dan Allen, Tom Neeson, and Yang Hong at the University of Oklahoma.
Together we will conduct one of the first coordinated projects to investigate how drying affects stream ecosystems in different climates across the southern half of the US. The work includes a significant field based component that integrates NEON stream research sites, where we will document the biodiversity, food web structure, and genetic connectivity of stream benthic invertebrate communities at perennial (continuously flowing) and intermittent (non-continuously flowing) stream sites. We will also develop a smartphone app designed for researchers and citizen scientists to map wet and dry reaches of streams and rivers. Later phases will include developing hydrological models that will predict stream drying patterns in the study river systems under different climate scenarios including climate oscillations and climate change, and spatial ecological models that will integrate field-collected data and hydrological model outputs to project how stream ecosystems will respond to large scale climate variability. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation Macrosystem Biology program and will run from 2019-2023.
Dry Rivers Research Coordination Network
Life is simply different in the absence of water, especially for life in rivers and streams. And yet half of the Earth’s rivers dry or stop flowing, which are called “intermittent rivers.” Historically intermittent rivers have been understudied or even ignored by researchers studying river ecology or river hydrology, who typically study rivers that always flow. Research has begun to show that the hydrology and ecology of intermittent rivers are very different from rivers that always flow. This means our current scientific understanding of streams and rivers is not accurate, as it is biased towards the half of the Earth’s rivers that continuously flow and against the half that do not. The Dry Rivers Research Coordination Network will organize a series of expert workgroups that will synthesize the growing body of research on intermittent river hydrology and ecology. These workgroups will examine this research to produce generalized frameworks that can explain how intermittent river hydrologic and ecologic systems work. This research is important because intermittent rivers are often overlooked or excluded from water management plans due to uncertainty about their hydrologic and ecological importance. Indeed, there is ongoing controversy regarding whether or not intermittent rivers should be included in the scope of management under US Environmental Protection Agency. This project will run from 2018-2022 and is funded by the National Science Foundation. Collaborators on this project include Daniel Allen, Kate Boersma, Michael Bogan, Thibault Datry, Ken Fritz, Sarah Godsey, Stephanie Kampf, Meryl Mims, Julian Olden, Albert Ruhi, Adam Ward, Margaret Zimmer, Emily Bernhardt, Walter Dodds, Jay Jones, and others. You can follow us on twitter @DryRiversRCN.