2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH
5/23/2019 | 11:45 AM - 12:00 PM | FROM GLACIAL, TO SNOW, TO RAIN: EFFECTS OF HYDROLOGIC HOMOGENIZATION ON AQUATIC FOOD WEBS IN SOUTHEAST ALASKA | 250 AB
FROM GLACIAL, TO SNOW, TO RAIN: EFFECTS OF HYDROLOGIC HOMOGENIZATION ON AQUATIC FOOD WEBS IN SOUTHEAST ALASKA
Watersheds in southeast Alaska frequently contain a mosaic of glacier-, snow-, and rain-fed streams that have distinct hydrologic, temperature and nutrient regimes. However, as glaciers recede and precipitation shifts from snow to rain, the physical and chemical characteristics that make a glacial or snowmelt stream different from a rainwater stream may fade. Among the unforeseen consequences of this hydrologic homogenization could be the loss of unique food webs that sustain aquatic and terrestrial consumers. To explore this possibility we parameterized a food web model with physico-chemical data from glacial-, snow- and rain-fed streams in southeast Alaska, and used the model to predict the seasonal biomass dynamics of consumers and resources. Model results suggest that glacial-, snow-, and rain-fed streams exhibit asynchronies in the peaks and troughs periphyton and aquatic invertebrate availability. For mobile fish consumers that can track peaks in resource abundance within river networks, the presence of these asynchronies increased modeled fish growth. These findings suggest that climate change induced homogenization of watersheds may result in the loss of unique food web dynamics, which in turn, could undermine the capacity of watersheds to sustain consumer populations.
- Hydrology
- Fish
- Modeling
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Presenters/Authors
J. Ryan Bellmore
(), Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Juneau, AK, jbellmore@fs.fed.us;
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Jason Fellman
(), University of Alaska Southeast, jbfellman@alaska.edu;
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Eran Hood
(), University of Alaska Southeast, ewhood@alaska.edu;
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Matthew R. Dunkle
(), Department of Fish and Wildlife Science, University of Idaho, mdunkle@uidaho.edu;
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