SFS Annual Meeting

5/24/2018  |   09:00 - 09:15   |  310 B

HOW DO LANDSCAPE CONFIGURATIONS INFLUENCE THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF A HEMIMETABOLOUS AQUATIC INSECT? Recent developments such as meta-community theory have highlighted the relevance of migration as an ecological process determining community assembly. Whereas many studies have been conducted on modeling migration dynamics for terrestrial species, those of species that depend on aquatic habitats remain little understood. Therefore, we examined the role of varying landscape configurations in combination with a stream-network in structuring the distribution of a (generic) hemimetabolous aquatic insect. We developed a dynamic, spatially explicit simulation model based on dispersal costs associated with landscape-pattern and on the ecological, demography-related processes population-growth and density-dependent emigration. The model is, therefore, applied on artificial rasters (around a static stream-network), derived from neutral landscape models, which represent a broad range of landscape scenarios. Furthermore, the spatial assemblies of habitats along streams are considered; random, clustered or linear distributions are simulated to elucidate interaction between suitable habitats and the configuration of land-cover. We found that the effects of landscape scenarios and habitat distributions interact with the colonization success: With high fraction of evenly distributed habitats, landscape scenarios were less important than for a low fraction and/or unevenly distributed habitats.

Henriette Heer (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Institute for Mathematics, University Koblenz-Landau, 56070 Koblenz, Germany, heer@uni-koblenz.de;


Mira Kattwinkel (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Institute for Environmental Sciences, University Koblenz-Landau, 76829 Landau i. d. Pfalz, Germany, kattwinkel-mira@uni-landau.de;


Stefan Ruzika (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Department of Mathematics, University of Kaiserslautern, 67653 Kaiserslautern, Germany, ruzika@mathematik.uni-kl.de;


Ralf Schäfer (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Koblenz-Landau, Institute for Environmental Sciences, schaefer-ralf@uni-landau.de;


Lucas Streib (Primary Presenter/Author), University of Koblenz-Landau, Institute for Environmental Sciences, streib@uni-landau.de;


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5/24/2018  |   09:15 - 09:30   |  310 B

IDENTIFYING AND APPLYING OPTIMUM ENVIRONMENTAL PREDICTORS IN ACCORDANCE WITH MACRO-INVERTEBRATE SPECIES PREFERENCES Species distribution models (SDMs) are frequently applied in stream ecological analysis to examine responses of taxa under future global change. However, it is common that the same set of environmental predictor variables is uniformly applied to every species in an entire community to predict their distribution. It is well established that individual species differ in their environmental preferences, crucial for their reproduction and survival. Accordingly, it is reasonable to suggest that groups of species will exhibit contrasting responses to environmental conditions shaping current and future distribution predictions. Using benthic macro-invertebrates, we test whether applying a specific set of environmental predictors to individual groups of taxa within a community will optimize the distribution predictions through SDMs. We assess the relative importance of environmental predictors from five categories (hydrology, climate, topography, geology and land-use) for over 100 benthic macro-invertebrate species across Germany and group them according to their susceptibility to each predictor category. We then predict each species distribution using the optimum set of environmental predictors and test for improved SDM performance. Finally, we present the classification of species according to their responses to the different environmental predictors.

Katherine Irving (Primary Presenter/Author), Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, katiei@sccwrp.org;


Mathias Kuemmerlen (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Senckenberg Research Institute, mkuemmerlen@senckenberg.de;


Sonja C. Jähnig (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries, Berlin, Germany , sonja.jaehnig@igb-berlin.de;


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5/24/2018  |   09:30 - 09:45   |  310 B

PATTERNS OF INVERTEBRATE DIVERSITY, BIOMASS, AND FOOD WEB STRUCTURE ACROSS A BROAD GEOGRAPHIC SCALE It has been hypothesized that many abiotic and biotic attributes of streams change predictably across climate gradients because of the direct influences temperature and precipitation have on hydrology and geomorphology. Several studies have demonstrated that metabolism and nutrient cycling follow predictable patterns across biomes. Vertebrate diversity has also been shown to vary across biomes, with the highest diversity and endemism occurring in forested streams followed by grassland and then desert streams. However, patterns of diversity across biomes are not as well understood for stream invertebrates. Here, we present results from a field study that investigated patterns of invertebrate diversity and food web structure across biomes. We studied 19 wadeable streams in seven locations across the southern United States (Arizona east to Alabama). We hypothesized that invertebrate communities inhabiting desert streams with open canopies would have a heavier reliance on in situ primary production than forested streams with closed canopies. Consequently, desert streams should contain a higher proportion of grazing taxa than forested streams, which should be inhabited by a higher proportion of detritivores. Results from this study provide evidence for broad-scale patterns of stream invertebrate diversity and food web structure.

Daniel Nelson (Primary Presenter/Author), University of Oklahoma, daniel.nelson79@gmail.com;


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


Darin Kopp (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Kopp.Darin@epa.gov;
Darin Kopp earned a BS in biology and environmental science from DePaul University, a MS in wildlife science from New Mexico State University and a PhD in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Oklahoma. He has expertise in ecological modeling and data synthesis and his research typically focuses on understanding biological patterns at regional, continental and global scales. For his dissertation he focused on quantifying the potential redistribution of materials and energy from streams and rivers to adjacent terrestrial ecosystems using existing geospatial and biomonitoring datasets for the contiguous United States. After completing his PhD, he received an ORISE Postdoctoral Research Fellowship with the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Pacific Ecological Systems Division to investigate methods to improve biological assessments of streams and rivers at the national scale. In collaboration with several principal investigators from the National Aquatic Resource Surveys, his is using multi-species distribution models for aquatic benthic macroinvertebrates and fish to quantify geographic variation in taxon-specific relationships with environmental gradients that are commonly altered by anthropogenic activities.

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5/24/2018  |   09:45 - 10:00   |  310 B

INTERMITTENT STREAMS MAKE SIGNIFICANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO BIODIVERSITY IN DRYLAND RIVERS OF THE SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES Dryland rivers are among the most threatened freshwater ecosystems by virtue of significant alterations to the hydrologic regime and rapidly changing climate leading to decreasing flow connectivity. Native fishes of dryland rivers face a dual threat from decreasing flow connectivity and negative interactions with nonnative species, affecting species distributions and biodiversity patterns in the Southwestern United States. With long-term monitoring data in the Verde and Little Colorado Rivers (Arizona), we used a hierarchical investigative structure within a metacommunity framework to examine local and species contributions to beta diversity from intermittent and perennial sites. We examine whether (1) intermittent sites make significant local contributions to beta diversity (LCBD), and (2) which major life history strategies or species origins (native and nonnative) affect species contributions to beta diversity (SCBD) among intermittent and perennial streams. Following expectations, intermittent sites had significant LCBD compared to perennial sites. Intermittent sites were more likely to have native species and species with the opportunistic life history strategy indicating that intermittent streams are ecologically unique. Maintaining periodic flow connectivity of intermittent streams within river networks will be important for the conservation of threatened and endangered Southwestern fishes.

Jane Rogosch (Primary Presenter/Author), U.S. Geological Survey, Texas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit/Texas Tech University, jrogosch@ttu.edu;


Julian Olden (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Washington, olden@uw.edu;


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5/24/2018  |   10:00 - 10:15   |  310 B

METABOLIC HETEROGENEITY IN RIVERS OF THE MOUNTAIN STEPPES OF MONGOLIA AND WYOMING Riverine metabolism is largely estimated using logged temperature, oxygen, and PAR data from one or two locations within a site. We know little about how probe placement influences estimates of metabolism because we lack knowledge regarding contribution of heterogeneous features to whole river metabolism. We deployed probes in representative habitats of temperate montane steppe rivers of Wyoming and Mongolia to characterize both the metabolism of these systems and how they vary at individual location, reach, and network scales. We used hydrogeomorphic variables alongside sensor data to calculate aeration, and estimated gross primary productivity and ecosystem respiration using models informed by bayesian inference. Probe arrays reflected variable ranges and rates of change of daily temperature and dissolved oxygen saturation. We anticipated higher backwater productivity and respiration, but were surprised by the significant contribution of this overlooked zone to downriver metabolism. Slower, sedimented areas on large river edges cycled between supersaturation and hypoxia daily. We expected larger rivers would mute any diurnal turnover, but found effects of large pool stratification on downstream metabolism and transient storage exchange. Our data suggest consideration of metabolic heterogeneity is key to understanding fundamental ecosystem characteristics.

Anne Schechner (Primary Presenter/Author), Kansas State University, anneschechner@ksu.edu;


Walter Dodds (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Kansas State University, wkdodds@ksu.edu;


Flavia Tromboni (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Nevada, Reno, ftromboni@unr.edu;


Sudeep Chandra (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Nevada Reno, Global Water Center, limnosudeep@me.com;


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5/24/2018  |   10:15 - 10:30   |  310 B

A DEPTH-EXPLICIT TRANSECT-BASED METHODOLOGY FOR CHAB VISUALIZATION IN INLAND WATERS Cyanobacterial Harmful Algal Blooms (CHABs) in inland waters have been increasing in frequency as warm summer temperatures and nutrient pollution become more common. CHABs can be monitored in a variety of ways including whole-lake remote sensing from satellites or aircraft, real-time lake monitoring, and discrete sampling with laboratory quantification. Remote-sensing has the benefit of quantifying a CHAB simultaneously across the entire surface of a water body, but is limited in that subsurface cyanobacteria cannot be accurately quantified to depth in turbid or deep waters. Here we present a transect-based methodology that allows for subsurface CHAB visualization in inland waters. This methodology has particular applicability to CHAB monitoring/visualization along environmental gradients such as those found along the lotic-lentic transition in reservoirs.

Nathan Ruhl (Primary Presenter/Author), Rowan University, Ruhl@rowan.edu;


Charalampos Papachristou (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Rowan University, papachristou@rowan.edu;


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