2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH
6/08/2017 | 9:30 AM - 9:45 AM | Allometric body mass – abundance scaling relationships vary in response to a gradient of mining impacts | 302C
Allometric body mass – abundance scaling relationships vary in response to a gradient of mining impacts
Body mass – abundance scaling relationships have been shown to be a remarkably consistent organizing principle, particularly in aquatic communities. This relationship has been shown to change in response to anthropogenic impacts, and has been proposed as a potential metric for community health. To test the utility of this approach, we constructed body mass – abundance relationships at 26 sites across an acid mine drainage impact gradient on the West Coast South Island, New Zealand. Body mass – abundance relationships varied significantly in response to acid mine drainage. When moving across the gradient from circumneutral and naturally acidic reference streams to more heavily impacted sites, slopes increased (approaching 0), while community abundance and the range of body sizes both decreased. The largest body size classes were more heavily impacted than smaller body sizes. These results indicate that acid mine drainage can have serious impacts to the distribution of biomass within aquatic communities. This has implications in food web structure and function in impacted sites, since many aquatic food webs are strongly size-structured.
- C25 Food Webs
- C17 Bioassessment
- C11 Community Ecology
Presentation:
This presentation has not yet been uploaded.
Handouts:
Handout is not Available
Transcripts:
CART transcripts are NOT YET available, but will be posted shortly after the conference
Presenters/Authors
Justin Pomeranz
(), University Canterbury, jfpomeranz@gmail.com;
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
Nonfinancial -
Jon Harding
(), University Canterbury, jon.harding@canterbry.ac.nz;
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
Nonfinancial -
Helen Warburton
(), University of Canterbury, helen.warburton@canterbury.ac.nz;
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
Nonfinancial -