SFS Annual Meeting

5/22/2018  |   09:00 - 09:15   |  310 B

Transcending Aquatic-terrestrial Boundaries: Ecology, Conservation and Management of Temporary Freshwaters In this special session we explore how aquatic-terrestrial linkages influence the unique characteristics of temporary freshwaters, their biodiversity dynamics, and their contribution to key ecosystem functions such as nutrient dynamics and carbon cycling. In this talk, we outline the major themes that will be discussed and how they can advance our understanding of temporary freshwater ecosystems as well as the field of ecology more generally. These themes include: spatial aquatic-terrestrial linkages, temporal shifts between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem states, drying as a disturbance that impacts community and meta-community structure, and the contribution of temporary freshwater systems to biogeochemical cycles. We close by discussing how temporary freshwater systems may be used as a model system to advance our understanding of the fields of ecology and stream ecology.

Daniel Allen (Primary Presenter/Author), The Pennsylvania State University, dca5269@psu.edu;


Katie Costigan (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Louisiana Lafayette, costigan@louisiana.edu;


Raphael Mazor (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, raphaelm@sccwrp.org;


Albert Ruhi (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, albert.ruhi@berkeley.edu;


Rachel Stubbington (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Nottingham Trent University, rachel.stubbington@ntu.ac.uk;


Ross Vander Vorste (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Rivers Study Center and Department of Biology - University of Wisconsin La Crosse , vandervorste.ross@gmail.com;


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5/22/2018  |   09:15 - 09:30   |  310 B

RESOURCE SUBSIDIES ACROSS AQUATIC-TERRESTRIAL BOUNDARIES OF TEMPORARY PONDS Aquatic habitats are closely linked to surrounding terrestrial habitats via reciprocal subsidies. Much of the research on these subsidies has been focused on streams and lakes, while subsidies across aquatic-terrestrial boundaries of seasonally inundated temporary ponds have received little attention. To address the lack of information regarding these cross-habitat subsidies, we quantified: 1) leaf litter inputs, 2) amphibian egg inputs, 3) terrestrial insect inputs, 4) amphibian metamorph emergence, and 5) aquatic insect emergence for eight temporary ponds. Leaf litter input represented the largest subsidy in this study (93%), followed by terrestrial insect inputs (5%), which represented substantial high-quality subsidies to ponds, and are generally unaccounted for in similar studies. Aquatic insect emergence (0.3%) was generally lower than amphibian metamorph emergence (0.8%). Amphibian egg inputs to ponds represented only 0.2% of total subsidies. Although larger ponds produced greater total fluxes to terrestrial habitats, smaller ponds were often more productive per unit area. Therefore, a mosaic of small ponds may produce greater or equivalent subsidies and may be more important to terrestrial food webs than single large ponds.

Kelley Fritz (Primary Presenter/Author), Southeastern Missouri State University, k.a.fritz24@gmail.com;


Matt Whiles (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Florida, mwhiles@ufl.edu;


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5/22/2018  |   09:30 - 09:45   |  310 B

NOVEL BIOMONITORS FOR DRY-PHASE ECOLOGICAL HEALTH ASSESSMENTS TRANSCEND AQUATIC-TERRESTRIAL BOUNDARIES IN TEMPORARY RIVERS Temporary rivers provide dynamic habitats for communities comprising aquatic and terrestrial organisms. Aquatic communities can reach stable states after long, predictable flowing phases, allowing their use in biomonitoring programmes. In contrast, despite supporting a diverse biota comprising persistent aquatic and colonizing terrestrial organisms, dry-phase communities remain poorly characterized, and spatial variation among dry channels of contrasting ecological quality remains unexplored. We used existing data to evaluate the potential of multiple biotic groups (aquatic and terrestrial macrophytes; diatoms; aquatic invertebrate ‘seedbanks’) to differentiate between sites impacted and unimpacted by human activity. Macrophyte and diatom assemblages differed among sites and included taxa indicative of both impacted and unimpacted conditions, whereas seedbank composition was comparable among sites. Abundance, diversity, and ecological quality index scores were typically higher at unimpacted sites, across biotic groups. Our study represents progress towards the incorporation of dry-phase communities into holistic biomonitoring programmes conducted to assess the ecological health of temporary rivers, and suggests that biomonitoring indices developed for perennial rivers have potential for adaptation and use during dry phases. The aquatic bias of available data highlights characterization of the terrestrial assemblages inhabiting dry channels as a research priority.

Rachel Stubbington (Primary Presenter/Author), Nottingham Trent University, rachel.stubbington@ntu.ac.uk;


Amélie Barthès (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Eurofins, Ameliebarthes@eurofins.com;


Agnès Bouchez (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), INRA (French National Institute for Agricultural Research), agnes.bouchez@inra.fr;


Thibault Datry (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), INRAE, France, Thibault.datry@inrae.fr;


Judy England (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Environment Agency, judy.england@environment-agency.gov.uk;


Amael Paillex (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), ECOTEC Environment SA, 1203, Geneva, Switzerland, amael.paillex@eawag.ch;


Chris Westwood (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Environmental Research Associates, westwood53@btinternet.com;


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5/22/2018  |   09:45 - 10:00   |  310 B

ASSESSING ECOLOGICAL HEALTH OF DRY PHASE INTERMITTENT RIVERS AND EPHEMERAL STREAMS As perennial river systems become increasingly intermittent worldwide, there is a growing need to focus attention on the dry phase of intermittent rivers and ephemeral streams (IRES) and develop tools to assess their ecological health in the absence of water. We explored the feasibility of dry phase bioassessment by testing a suite of metrics developed to indicate disturbance in dry streambeds of IRES. We sampled bryophytes and terrestrial arthropods at thirty-nine sites in the southern California across environmental and disturbance gradients as potential biological indicators during dry periods. We collected bryophytes within the channel and surrounding riparian zone using a microhabitat-based sampling protocol and arthropods using ramped pitfall traps within the channel. We used random forest models to adjust 148 arthropod and bryophyte metrics to account for natural variability in metric scores. Several metrics, including multiple spider and bryophyte richness metrics differ significantly (p < 0.05) between reference and degraded sites and are related to anthropogenic stressors. These results suggest that multi-metric indices based on terrestrial arthropods and bryophytes may be used to assess IRES ecological condition when dry.

Matthew Robinson (Primary Presenter/Author), California State University Monterey Bay, marobinson@csumb.edu;


John Olson (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Dept of Applied Environmental Science, California State University Monterey Bay, CA, USA, joolson@csumb.edu;


Raphael Mazor (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, raphaelm@sccwrp.org;


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5/22/2018  |   10:00 - 10:15   |  310 B

COMMUNITY RESPONSES TO NATURAL AND ANTHROPOGENIC DISTURBANCES: STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL INSIGHTS FROM MEDITERRANEAN STREAMS Natural and anthropogenic disturbances are expected to increase under global change. Methods to improve management and conservation of freshwater ecosystems urge to disentangle the effects of both disturbance types. Current methods that assess the ecological status of rivers are designed to detect anthropogenic disturbances but their performance in combination with natural ones is unclear. In this study we investigated if natural disturbances can modulate the effect of anthropogenic ones. We also assessed the reliability of commonly used taxonomic metrics in ecological status assessment on detecting both disturbances and investigated the potential use of several functional metrics. Flow intermittence (comparison between perennial vs intermittent rivers) was used as a measure of natural disturbance, whereas multiple human pressures measured with the Mediterranean Reference Condition index were used as a measure of anthropogenic ones. Results showed that as flow intermittence increases, the response of current taxonomic metrics to anthropogenic disturbances was low or not significant, whilst some functional metrics did. Therefore, new metrics based on functional properties of the community can be useful tools for biomonitoring highly dynamic systems such as intermittent rivers.

Nuria Bonada (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Barcelona, bonada@ub.edu;


Cayetano Gutiérrez-Cánovas (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Barcelona, cayeguti@um.es ;


Raúl Acosta (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Universitat de Barcelona, racosta@ub.edu;


Pablo Rodríguez-Lozano (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Department of Geography, University of the Balearic Islands, 07122 Palma, Spain, pablo.rodriguez@uib.es;


Narcís Prat (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Barcelona, nprat.ub.edu;


Francesc Gallart (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), IDAEA-CSIC, francesc.gallart@idaea.csic.es;


Núria Cid (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), INRAE, nuria.cid-puey@inrae.fr;


Maria Soria Extremera (Primary Presenter/Author), IDAEA-CSIC and University of Barcelona, mariasoriaextremera@gmail.com;


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5/22/2018  |   10:15 - 10:30   |  310 B

HOW DOES URBANIZATION AFFECT AQUATIC-TERRESTRIAL LINKAGES IN INTERMITTENT STREAMS? Intermittent streams have highly dynamic aquatic-terrestrial linkages but little is known about how urbanization affects those linkages and their corresponding ecosystem services. Urban intermittent streams provide a unique opportunity to study aquatic-terrestrial linkages due to the availability of public datasets and the visibility of ecosystem services provided. We will develop a conceptual model for how urbanization may affect aquatic-terrestrial linkages within intermittent streams. As a case study, we will then focus on karstic intermittent streams in one of the United States’ largest and fastest growing urban centers, San Antonio, TX, where 94% of stream kilometers are intermittent. We will focus on quantifying several aspects of ecosystem linkages: 1) temporal and spatial variability in the amount of channel that is wet vs. dry, 2) flow magnitude, frequency, and duration, and 3) fluxes of organic matter, including algae production and desiccation. We hypothesize that urbanization will alter channel morphology and connectivity, which may increase water and organic matter storage and increase algal carbon export from aquatic to terrestrial systems. Quantifying alterations in these linkages will improve understanding of urbanization impacts on water quality and groundwater recharge dynamics in intermittent streams.

Jennifer Courtwright (Primary Presenter/Author), Utah State University National Aquatic Monitoring Center, jennifer.courtwright@usu.edu;


Brian Laub (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), The University of Texas at San Antonio, laubbriang@gmail.com;


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