Thursday, June 8, 2017
14:00 - 15:45

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14:00 - 14:15: / 302C ENVIRONMENTAL VERSUS SOURCE POOL CONSTRAINTS ON AN URBAN ZOOPLANKTON METACOMMUNITY

6/08/2017  |   14:00 - 14:15   |  302C

ENVIRONMENTAL VERSUS SOURCE POOL CONSTRAINTS ON AN URBAN ZOOPLANKTON METACOMMUNITY Many sustainability plans and management practices reflect the need to conserve biodiversity, yet once these plans are implemented, the ecological consequences remain uncertain. By understanding how management practices affect local environmental factors and dispersal in a region, ecologists can gain a better understanding of the implications for management choices. Our goal was to determine how the interaction between spatial variation in habitat quality in algal management of urban ponds and dispersal shape biodiversity at multiple spatial scales. A twelve-week mesocosm study was conducted where pond management and dispersal were manipulated to determine how spatial variation in habitat and source pool constraints on dispersal influence zooplankton metacommunities. We hypothesized that dispersal from managed or unmanaged source pools will lead to shifts in community composition and local management practices will act as an environmental filter, reducing beta diversity between managed ponds. Our results revealed that the source pool of dispersers led to community divergence and that local management practices significantly reduced compositional turnover of zooplankton among ponds. The results of this study suggest that sustainability and management plans may have complex, deleterious effects on biodiversity both within and across local habitats.

Nicole Voelker (Primary Presenter/Author), University of Maryland, Baltimore County, voelker1@umbc.edu;


Christopher Swan ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Maryland Baltimore County, cmswan@umbc.edu;


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14:15 - 14:30: / 302C THE FRESHWATER GASTROPODS OF THE OHIO

6/08/2017  |   14:15 - 14:30   |  302C

THE FRESHWATER GASTROPODS OF THE OHIO We report preliminary results from a survey of the freshwater gastropod fauna from the Ohio River basin above Paducah, including western Pennsylvania and most of West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. Our database of 4,746 records was almost entirely drawn from state natural resource agencies (36%), museums (30%) and our own original collections (30%), almost all personally examined and verified. We report 66 species and subspecies of freshwater gastropods, the most common of which are Physa acuta (959 incidences), Ferrissia rivularis (536), and Pleurocera semicarinata (all subspecies combined 528). Nine species were collected in but a single population, four of which seem to be legitimately rare, the remainder peripheral. The distribution of commonness and rarity appeared log-2 bimodal, with mean 3.84 (14.3 incidences) and standard deviation 2.79 (6.9 incidences). Our Ohio River basin results are compared to similar databases previously assembled from the Atlantic drainages and from East Tennessee, and the 99 species of the combined 13-state fauna ranked by their incidence.

Robert T. Dillon, Jr. (Primary Presenter/Author), Freshwater Gastropods of North America, dillonr@fwgna.org;


Ryan Evans ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection, Ryan.Evans@ky.gov;


Mark Pyron ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Ball State University, mpyron@bsu.edu;


G. Thomas Watters ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), The Ohio State University, watters.1@osu.edu;


Will Reeves ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), USDA-APHIS-BRS, wkreeves@gmail.com;


Richard Kugblenu ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), SUNY - Albany, rkugblenu1@gmail.com;


Jeffrey Bailey ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, Jeffrey.E.Bailey@wv.gov;


Michael Whitman ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, Michael.J.Whitman@wv.gov;


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14:30 - 14:45: / 302C THE INDEPENDENT AND INTERACTIVE ROLES OF FUNCTIONAL AND PHYLOGENETIC DIVERSITY ON LEAF LITTER BREAKDOWN IN STREAMS

6/08/2017  |   14:30 - 14:45   |  302C

THE INDEPENDENT AND INTERACTIVE ROLES OF FUNCTIONAL AND PHYLOGENETIC DIVERSITY ON LEAF LITTER BREAKDOWN IN STREAMS Leaf litter derived from riparian vegetation is a significant resource to aquatic ecosystems and the structure of these communities can greatly influence decomposition in streams. Functional diversity (FD), which defines the distribution of functional traits in a community, has been shown to effectively predict ecosystem function. Phylogenetic diversity (PD), which accounts for evolutionary distinctiveness between species, is understudied in the context of carbon processing. Here using a regional species pool, riparian tree communities were randomly generated and a subset was then chosen reflecting high/low levels of both FD/PD. Leaf litter assemblages were created to reflect species composition in chosen communities and were exposed to three headwater streams in Patapsco State Park (Maryland, USA). Breakdown rates were estimated and then related to FD and PD. Our analysis revealed that breakdown of multi-species assemblages is significantly related to both FD and PD. When the traits known to govern decomposition are integrated, the direction and magnitude of diversity effects can be predicted. Furthermore, these results suggest that the unknown interactions and traits that are encompassed in a dimension such as PD may play an important role in regulating carbon processing in aquatic habitats.

April Sparkman (Primary Presenter/Author, Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Maryland, Baltimore Country , asparkm1@umbc.edu;


Christopher Swan ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Maryland Baltimore County, cmswan@umbc.edu;


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14:45 - 15:00: / 302C HOTSPOTS AND BRIGHT SPOTS IN FUNCTIONAL AND TAXONOMIC FISH DIVERSITY

6/08/2017  |   14:45 - 15:00   |  302C

HOTSPOTS AND BRIGHT SPOTS IN FUNCTIONAL AND TAXONOMIC FISH DIVERSITY Freshwater conservation is often secondary to terrestrial protected areas and rarely considers all aspects of biodiversity, such as functional biodiversity. We are using data from Coastal Wetland Monitoring program to understand patterns in functional and taxonomic fish biodiversity across the northern Great Lakes. We test the relationship between taxonomic and functional diversity and identify areas most likely to maximize conservation benefits in terms of both types of biodiversity. In addition, we use bright spots outlier analysis to distinguish areas with unexpectedly high taxonomic and functional diversity in highly developed areas, likely indicating increased resilience and conservation potential. These findings are discussed in the context of freshwater protected area prioritization, since there are few guidelines available for nomination and selection of new freshwater protected areas, despite the increasing public support for creating additional areas focused on freshwater conservation.

Katya Kovalenko (POC,Primary Presenter), Natural Resources Research Institute, Univ. Minnesota Duluth, philarctus@gmail.com;


Lucinda Johnson ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Natural Resources Research Institute, University of Minnesota Duluth, ljohnson@d.umn.edu;


Valerie Brady ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Natural Resources Research Institute, University Minnesota Duluth, vbrady@d.umn.edu;


Matthew Cooper ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation, Northland College, mcooper@northland.edu;


Ashley Moerke ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Center for Freshwater Research and Education, Lake Superior State University, amoerke@lssu.edu;


Carl R. Ruetz III ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Annis Water Resources Institute, Grand Valley State University, ruetzc@gvsu.edu;


Donald Uzarski ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Institute for Great Lakes Research, Central Michigan University, uzars1dg@cmich.edu;


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15:00 - 15:15: / 302C BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY AT NEON STREAM SITES: PRELIMINARY MACROIINVERTEBRATE AND FISH DATA TRENDS IN WADEABLE STREAMS ACROSS THE OBSERVATORY

6/08/2017  |   15:00 - 15:15   |  302C

BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY AT NEON STREAM SITES: PRELIMINARY MACROIINVERTEBRATE AND FISH DATA TRENDS IN WADEABLE STREAMS ACROSS THE OBSERVATORY The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a national-scale research platform designed to assess the impacts of ecological change on ecosystem structure and function across 20 ecoclimatic domains from Alaska to Puerto Rico. NEON’s aquatic program is comprised of a suite of instrument and observational data collected at 24 wadeable streams, 7 lakes, and 3 large rivers. In 2016, aquatic macroinvertebrate and fish data were collected at 14 and 8 wadeable stream sites respectively. Biological diversity is expected to range widely across the gradient of NEON aquatic sites. Preliminary macroinvertebrate data show species richness ranging from 50 taxa in the Arikaree River, Colorado to 120 taxa in Posey Creek, Virginia, and fish species richness ranging from 1 species in Red Butte Creek, Utah to 23 species in Mayfield Creek, Alabama. Using available abiotic data such as stream discharge and water chemistry, we are able to analyze trends in biological diversity data at NEON stream sites across the network. When operating at full capacity, NEON aquatic data will be available from 34 sites across the observatory.

Stephanie Parker (Primary Presenter/Author), Battelle, National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), sparker@battelleecology.org;
NEON Aquatic Ecologist and Research Scientist

Brandon Jensen ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), National Ecological Observatory Network - Battelle Ecology, bjensen@battelleecology.org;


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15:15 - 15:30: / 302C LOSS OF HISTORICAL STONEFLY ASSEMBLAGE LINKED TO HUMAN DISTURBANCE AND NATURAL FACTORS

6/08/2017  |   15:15 - 15:30   |  302C

LOSS OF HISTORICAL STONEFLY ASSEMBLAGE LINKED TO HUMAN DISTURBANCE AND NATURAL FACTORS We used 6000 specimen records to examine % species loss at 30 sampled fixed sites across Illinois. A total 193 USEPA StreamCat variables were reduced to an 11 variable data set through correlation, relative weight, and dominance analysis in R software. The MuMin package with dredge function and generalized linear models was used to examine all possible variable combinations, each model compared using Akaike information criterion (AIC). Models with ?AIC?2 were deemed "good" models. Importance in the MuMin package was used to assign variable relative importance. The % loss was high across sites. The best model contained % catchment as forest, catchment mean depth to bedrock, watershed mean population density, and catchment % barren land as variables. "Good" models contained % catchment as forest and catchment mean depth to bedrock. Variables above 0.4 importance were: deciduous forest, depth to bedrock, population density, barren land, % impervious cover in catchment, and catchment area. Greater % forest cover, shallower soils, lower population densities, less barren land, and smaller catchment areas led to lower % loss of stoneflies. Our study is the first to link loss of historical stonefly diversity to various factors.

R Edward DeWalt (Primary Presenter/Author), Illinois Natural History Survey, dewalt@illinois.edu;


Eric South ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ejsouth@illinois.edu;


Yong Cao ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Illinois Natural History Survey, University of illinois, yongcao@illinois.edu;


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