2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH
6/07/2017 | 9:00 AM - 9:15 AM | UNDERSTANDING TROPICAL STREAM RESPONSES TO URBANIZATION: THE CASE OF THE RIO PIEDRAS WATERSHED IN PUERTO RICO | 306B
UNDERSTANDING TROPICAL STREAM RESPONSES TO URBANIZATION: THE CASE OF THE RIO PIEDRAS WATERSHED IN PUERTO RICO
Our understanding of tropical urban streams is limited. Puerto Rico offers a unique opportunity to study tropical urban streams. We have been focusing on the Rio Piedras, the main watershed draining the San Juan Metropolitan Area of Puerto Rico, with the goal of understanding stream responses to urban gradients. Our goal is to understand how urbanization is affecting the various components of stream ecosystems in Puerto Rico and how they change over time. Along a gradient of increasing urbanization, our studies indicate that water chemistry shows the expected increase in ion concentrations and a decrease in insect diversity. Fish and shrimp are not strongly affected by urbanization and are present in most reaches with appropriate habitat. However, fish assemblages are changing in response to hydrological changes and drought. Leaf litter decomposition decreases with increasing urbanization and riparian food webs also show negative impacts. Our finding highlight the importance of hydrology and habitat availability for maintaining ecosystem function. Overall, urban streams in Puerto Rico are a good model for understanding how streams in tropical coastal areas respond to urbanization once major sewage discharges are removed.
- S09 The importance of environmental gradients for the advance of tropical stream ecology
- S09 The importance of environmental gradients for the advance of tropical stream ecology
- S09 The importance of environmental gradients for the advance of tropical stream ecology
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Presenters/Authors
Alonso RamÃrez
(), North Carolina State University, alonso.ramirez@ncsu.edu;
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