University of Worcester Worcester Research and Publications
 
  USER PANEL:
  ABOUT THE COLLECTION:
  CONTACT DETAILS:

Major Flood Disturbance Alters River Ecosystem Evolution

Milner, A.M., Robertson, A.L., McDermott, M.J., Klaar, Megan and Brown, L.E. (2013) Major Flood Disturbance Alters River Ecosystem Evolution. Nature Climate Change, 3. pp. 137-141. ISSN 1758-678X

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

Floods, major formative drivers of channel and floodplain structure and associated riparian and in-stream communities are increasing in intensity and magnitude with climate change in many regions of the world. However, predicting how floods will affect stream channels and their communities as climate changes is limited by a lack of long-term pre-flood baseline data sets across different organismal groups. Here we show salmon, macroinvertebrate and meiofauna communities, monitored for 30 years in a system evolving owing to glacier retreat, were modified significantly by a major rainfall event that caused substantial geomorphic change to the stream channel. Pink salmon, reduced to one-tenth of pre-flood spawner densities, recovered within two generations. Macroinvertebrate community structure was significantly different after the flood as some pioneer taxa, which had become locally extinct, recolonized whereas some later colonizers were eliminated. The trajectory of the macroinvertebrate succession was reset towards the community structure of 15 years earlier. Meiofaunal abundance recovered rapidly and richness increased post-flood with some previously unrecorded taxa colonizing. Biotic recovery was independent of geomorphological recovery. Markedly different responses according to the organismal group suggest caution is required when applying general aquatic ecosystem theories and concepts to predict flood events.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information:

The full-text cannot be supplied for this item. Please check availability with your local library or Interlibrary Requests Service.

Uncontrolled Discrete Keywords: ecology, hydrology, biodiversity, ecosystems, impacts
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GB Physical geography
Q Science > Q Science (General)
Divisions: College of Health, Life and Environmental Sciences > School of Science and the Environment
Depositing User: Megan Klaar
Date Deposited: 25 Oct 2013 11:42
Last Modified: 17 Jun 2020 17:00
URI: https://eprints.worc.ac.uk/id/eprint/2623

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item
 
     
Worcester Research and Publications is powered by EPrints 3 which is developed by the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. More information and software credits.