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   |  TEMPORAL CHANGES IN THE POPULATION SIZE STRUCTURE OF GAMMARUS FOSSARUM IN RESPONSE TO LONG-TERM EXPERIMENTAL FLOODS   |  Virtual Platform

TEMPORAL CHANGES IN THE POPULATION SIZE STRUCTURE OF GAMMARUS FOSSARUM IN RESPONSE TO LONG-TERM EXPERIMENTAL FLOODS

The long-term experimental flood program on the River Spöl had substantial ecological effects on instream ecosystems, by reintroducing seasonal disturbance in a flow-regulated river. Macroinvertebrate assemblages responded over time with marked shifts in composition. Densities of the dominant (comprising 90% of the assemblage before the flood program) Gammarus fossarum declined, and taxa resilient to flow disturbance (some mayflies and stoneflies) increased in number and density. We tested whether the repeated flow-pulse disturbances selected demographic traits of populations through sequential episodes of high mortality and recovery using the amphipod as a case-study example. We expected that the physical filtering during floods, and changes in resources and habitat availability, altered the population size structure of G. fossarum, thereby redistributing macroinvertebrate size structure in the river. We applied high-throughput image analysis of G. fossarum over 20 years in the Spol to examine if the observed temporal changes in abundance were reflected in changes in size-class distribution. We relate our findings of flood-induced environmental changes to disturbance effects on population resistance and resilience. We expect the results will generate insights into the eco-evolutionary selection of experimental floods on organisms and mechanisms influencing community assembly.

  • Ecological dynamics
  • Stream
  • Biological effects

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Presenters/Authors

Gabriele Consoli (), Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, EAWAG ; Aquatic Ecology dpt., gabriele.consoli@eawag.ch;


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Christopher Robinson (), Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, EAWAG ; Aquatic Ecology dpt., Christopher.robinson@eawag.ch;


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