2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

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5/25/2021  |   8:30 AM - 10:30 AM   |  BRIDGES - Barriers [or blips?] restricting illumination decreasing growth and energy in streams   |  Virtual Platform

BRIDGES - Barriers [or blips?] restricting illumination decreasing growth and energy in streams

Bridge infrastructure is an understudied form of urbanization in stream networks, though road bridges are abundant in many landscapes (>1800 in Cuyahoga River watershed; ~1 bridge per square kilometer). The presence of bridges may be comparable to buried reaches if light to the benthos is restricted for an extended period (barrier) suppressing primary production, or comparable to open reaches if light to the benthos is only intermittently disrupted (blip). This study quantified how the presence of bridges changes ecosystem metabolism by benthic biofilms in streams. Whole stream metabolism was quantified using the two-station method and sensors distributed longitudinally, upstream, beneath, and downstream of each bridge. In streams with north-south oriented bridges, light was intermittently disrupted, and primary production was restricted by 0-3%. Streams with east-west oriented bridges disrupted light to the benthos in a fixed position and primary production was restricted by 17-24%. Streams with intercardinal oriented bridges disrupted light to the benthos with most variation and primary production was restricted by 26-42%. The extent to which bridges disrupt stream ecosystem processes can be either an extended barrier or a temporary blip depending on bridge orientation.

  • Stream
  • Anthropogenic
  • Ecosystem functioning

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Presenters/Authors

Andrea Fitzgibbon (), Kent State University , afitzgib@kent.edu;


ASHA DISCLOSURE:

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David Costello (), Kent State University, dcostel3@kent.edu;


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