SFS Annual Meeting

5/20/2019  |   09:00 - 09:15   |  251 AB

ANTHROPOGENIC CHANGE INFLUENCES WETLAND FOOD WEBS AND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION: EVIDENCE FOR TROPHIC DOWNGRADING? Trophic downgrading occurs when removal of predators alters the structure and function of food webs. While evidence of top-down influences on food webs is pervasive in the literature, most evidence supporting trophic downgrading comes from case studies where large vertebrate predators were extirpated from food webs by extreme anthropogenic pressures. Further, most evidence of top-down trophic cascades comes from studies of relatively simple, single food chains. Using DNA metabarcoding to characterize aquatic communities provides a standardized, sensitive method for rapid species detection and community assessment, but it does not yield requisite trait information for food web construction. We combined DNA metabarcoding with trait matching to create heuristic food webs for the Grand Lake Meadows, Atlantic Canada’s largest freshwater wetland. We asked: (1) how does anthropogenic change influence the properties of heuristic food webs, and (2) how do food web properties correlate with leaf litter decomposition? We provide evidence that anthropogenic change has led to trophic downgrading in a wetland invertebrate food web, which is associated with depressed decomposition rates. We explore how the loss of invertebrate predators could adversely influence ecosystem functions, even in relatively intact, undisturbed systems.

Zacchaeus Compson (Primary Presenter/Author), University of North Texas, zacchaeus.compson@unt.edu;


Wendy Monk (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Environment and Climate Change Canada @ Canadian Rivers Institute, Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada, wmonk@unb.ca;


Natalie Rideout (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Canadian Rivers Institute, Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada, nrideout@unb.ca;


Sonja Stefani (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Dresden University of Technology, Institute of Hydrobiology, Dresden, Saxony, Germany, stefani.sonja@googlemail.com;


Mehrdad Hajibabaei (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Centre for Biodiversity Genomics & Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, ON, Canada, mhajibab@uoguelph.ca;


Terrisita Porter (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Centre for Biodiversity Genomics @ Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, terrimporter@gmail.com;


Donald Baird (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Environment and Climate Change Canada @ Canadian Rivers Institute, Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada, djbaird@unb.ca;


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5/20/2019  |   09:15 - 09:30   |  251 AB

USING TRAITS TO DECONSTRUCT LINKAGES BETWEEN MACROINVERTEBRATE DIVERSITY AND WETLAND ECOSYSTEM FUNCTION ACROSS A FLOODPLAIN DISTURBANCE GRADIENT Floodplains are disturbance-driven ecosystems with high spatial and temporal habitat diversity, making them both highly productive and hosts to high biodiversity. The unpredictable timing of flood and drought years creates a mosaic of habitat patches at different stages of succession, while water level fluctuation directly influences macrophyte community dynamics, and thus habitat structure. This habitat complexity, and diversity of disturbance regimes, makes floodplains an ideal ecosystem in which to examine the links between biodiversity, traits and ecosystem function. Despite the rise in trait-based science, few studies outside of plant ecology have examined the links between traits and measured ecosystem function. Using high throughput genomics sequencing methods that reliably characterize community composition in unprecedented detail, we aim to determine how disturbance and environmental variables interact with macroinvertebrate traits that are known to affect ecosystem function. Specifically, we ask the following questions: 1) How do habitat diversity and disturbance regimes associate with protection and management? 2) What are the linkages among environmental drivers and disturbance, macroinvertebrate community structure and ecosystem function? 3) Are there taxa and trait indicators that can predict habitat change and ecosystem health in floodplain wetlands?

Natalie Rideout (Primary Presenter/Author), Canadian Rivers Institute, Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada, nrideout@unb.ca;


Zacchaeus Compson (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of North Texas, zacchaeus.compson@unt.edu;


Wendy Monk (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Environment and Climate Change Canada @ Canadian Rivers Institute, Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada, wmonk@unb.ca;


Mehrdad Hajibabaei (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Centre for Biodiversity Genomics & Department of Integrative Biology, University of Guelph, ON, Canada, mhajibab@uoguelph.ca;


Donald Baird (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Environment and Climate Change Canada @ Canadian Rivers Institute, Department of Biology, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada, djbaird@unb.ca;


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5/20/2019  |   09:30 - 09:45   |  251 AB

A FRESHWATER INSECT OCCURRENCE AND TRAIT DATASET FOR THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES Freshwater insects comprise 60% of the diversity of freshwater animals and are essential indicators of ecosystem health, yet our knowledge of the distribution of freshwater insect diversity in the US is incomplete. Scientists rely on geospatial data to assess biodiversity at large spatial extents, but a comprehensive dataset in the US linking freshwater insect occurrences and traits does not exist. We’re filling this knowledge gap by presenting the first dataset of occurrence records and functional traits for freshwater insects in the continental US. We compiled 1.2 million occurrence records from 36,000 stream locations sampled between 2001 and 2018 by federal and state biological monitoring programs. We compiled traits for insects in our occurrence data by expanding the USEPA Biological Traits Database. We added 111 insect genera and doubled the number of genera with a trait assignment for most trait categories. We present binary trait assignments and affinity scores (fuzzy-coded traits) for insect genera. We used our data to map the distribution of trait syndromes for freshwater insects in the US. Our dataset will be published as an open-access data paper accompanied by R code to plot and explore the data.

Laura Twardochleb (Primary Presenter/Author), Michigan State University, twardoch@msu.edu;


Ethan Hiltner (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Michigan State University, hiltnere@msu.edu;


Matthew Pyne (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Lamar University, mattpyne@hotmail.com;


Phoebe Zarnetske (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Michigan State University, plz@anr.msu.edu;


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5/20/2019  |   09:45 - 10:00   |  251 AB

LOCAL AND REGIONAL DRIVERS OF TAXONOMIC HOMOGENIZATION IN STREAM DIATOMS, INSECTS, AND FISH ALONG A LAND USE GRADIENT We used diatom, insect, and fish datasets from the US, Canada, and France to explore i) responses of beta-diversity to agriculture versus forest cover with respect to physicochemistry, ii) whether these responses were explained by altered local assembly versus regional species pool effects, and iii) if changes in local assembly were explained by the regional species abundance distribution (SAD) or intraspecific spatial aggregation. Agricultural eutrophication was associated with homogenization and greater inequality of the SAD across all groups, but the responses of beta- and gamma-diversity diverged across, and at times within, taxa. The contributions of local assembly versus the regional pool to beta-diversity remained generally insensitive to land use, but varied among groups with fish being more strongly controlled by local effects compared to diatoms and insects. Local assembly was attributed primarily to the regional SADs regardless of land cover, taxonomy, or dataset of origin. We conclude that agricultural eutrophication underlies beta-diversity loss in our streams, but not the relative importance of its local versus regional drivers. Body size and dispersal capacity were consistent predictors of the strength of local assembly, which was governed nearly exclusively by the SAD.

William Budnick (Primary Presenter/Author), University of Texas - Arlington, william.budnick@mavs.uta.edu;


Thibault Leboucher (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), IRSTEA, thibault.leboucher@irstea.fr;


Jerome Belliard (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), IRSTEA, Jerome.belliard@irstea.fr;


Janne Soininen (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Finland , janne.soininen@helsinki.fi;


Isabelle Lavoie (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), National Institute of Scientific Research - Quebec, ilavoie.bio@gmail.com;


Katrina Pound (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Texas - Arlington, katrina@uta.edu;


Aurelien Jamoneau (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), IRSTEA, aurelien.jamoneau@irstea.fr;


Juliette Roseberry (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), IRSTEA, juliette.roseberry@irstea.fr;


Evelyne Tales (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), IRSTEA, evelyne.tales@irstea.fr;


Virpi Pajunen (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Helsinki, virpi.pajunen@helsinki.fi;


Stephane Campeau (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Quebec at Trois Rivieres, stephane.campeau@uqtr.ca;


Sophia Passy (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Texas - Arlington, sophia.passy@uta.edu;


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5/20/2019  |   10:00 - 10:15   |  251 AB

TOP DOWN AND BOTTOM UP DRIVERS OF COMMUNITY ASSEMBLY IN ALPINE LAKES Biodiversity is controlled by both biotic and abiotic factors, and the balance and number of these controls remains a key question in understanding ecological community assembly. The interactive effects of top down (fish) and bottom up (nutrients) controls on aquatic biodiversity are poorly understood, particularly in alpine lake environments. Historically, alpine lakes are nutrient limited and fishless. Anthropogenic nutrients and fish introductions could shift the composition of dominant zooplankton taxa yet we do not know the relative contributions of these top down and bottom up effects on community assembly. We are studying these effects on zooplankton assemblages in 42 lakes in the Wind River Range (WRR), Wyoming, which possesses an anthropogenically-derived phosphorus gradient. In lakes with fish predators, zooplankton were 1.8 times smaller, total zooplankton abundance was 4.5 times higher, and zooplankton assemblages were dominated by cladocera. In contrast to many studies of lower elevation lakes, fishless lakes were dominated by copepods, likely because of lower phosphorus availability. Thus, we have evidence of both bottom up effects and top down effects on zooplankton assemblages in alpine lakes.

Amy Krist (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Wyoming, krist@uwyo.edu;


Annika Walters (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), USGS Wyoming Coop Fish and Wildlife Unit, annika.walters@uwyo.edu;


Katie Wagner (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Wyoming, Catherine.Wagner@uwyo.edu;


Lindsey Boyle (Primary Presenter/Author), University of Wyoming, lboyle1@uwyo.edu;


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5/20/2019  |   10:15 - 10:30   |  251 AB

COLONIZATION AND DISPERSAL RATE OF TRICHOPTERA SPECIES IN ICELAND AND THE CONSEQUENT DISAPPEARANCE OF A CADDISFLY SPECIES Twelve species of Trichoptera are recorded in Iceland. Ten of the species were known from the first half of the 20th century. In the last 70 years two species, Potamophylax cingulatus and Micopterna lateralis, colonized the island. Apatania zonella, has disappeared from streams recently colonized by P. cingulatus, probably due to predation. M. lateralis was found in a single light trap near Reykjavik in 2008. The annual catch has since grown from 2 specimens to 73. Larval habitat is still unknown. It is possible to conclude from this that when species establish a population on a large island like Iceland, the population builds up and when it has established itself, it disperses fast. Dispersal rate of P. cingulatus was about 7 km/year.

Gisli Mar Gislason (Primary Presenter/Author), University of Iceland, gmg@hi.is;


Erling Olafsson (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Icelandic Institute of Natural History, erling@ni.is;


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