Poster Details
MULTIPLE DISPERSAL PATHWAYS SHAPE DIVERSITY PATTERNS IN ARID RIVER NETWORKS
River networks have a hierarchical dendritic structure in which branching headwater segments converge to form higher order mainstem segments. The shape and structure of river networks results in variation in connectivity between network locations and is closely linked to the dispersal of aquatic organisms. In arid systems, ephemeral and intermittent segments have seasonal dry periods, reducing network connectivity. However, this reduction to connectivity may have less of an impact on flight and strong dispersing species that may be more structured by an overland dispersal network. This study examined long-term archived data for sites sampled for aquatic arthropods in arid catchments in Southern California, USA to explore diversity patterns of taxa exhibiting a wide range of dispersal abilities. This study hypothesized that species with overland dispersal traits would be more similar along Euclidean distance, while river network restricted species would be more similar over in-stream measured distances.
Ryan Conway (Primary Presenter/Author), University of California, Riverside, rconw002@ucr.edu;
Kurt Anderson (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of California, Riverside, kurt.anderson@ucr.edu;