2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

6/07/2017 | 9:15 AM - 9:30 AM | When the rainforest dries up: Impacts of severe drought in a tropical stream | 306B

When the rainforest dries up: Impacts of severe drought in a tropical stream

Precipitation is never constant in rainforests and annual fluctuations are often large. While extremely low precipitation (drought) occurs infrequently, it can act as a major disturbance in stream ecosystems. Understanding the effects of droughts is critical, as tropical areas are expected to progressively receive less precipitation due to climate change. In this study, we use our long-term data set (2009-2015) to assess the impacts of a severe drought during 2015 upon a third-order stream draining the El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico. In 2015, rainfall was 44.6% lower than the average annual precipitation. Discharge declined and physicochemical parameters were variable and related to changes in stream flow. Leaf-litter fall increased by 35% compared to our long-term data. Macroinvertebrate abundance was 10 times higher than the long-term average, but there was no change in taxonomic richness. Finally, organic biofilm (AFDM) increased and chlorophyll-a decreased. Our study highlights the dramatic effects of drought on tropical streams, with potentially large repercussions on ecosystem processes. This underlines the need for long-term data to understand how stream ecosystems respond to extreme events and climate change.

C22 Disturbance
C11 Community Ecology
S09 The importance of environmental gradients for the advance of tropical stream ecology

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Presenters/Authors

Pablo E. Gutiérrez-Fonseca (), University of Costa Rica, pabloe.gutierrezfonseca@gmail.com;