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SUMMARY:EESS talk on "Better understanding stream ecological processes thr
 ough scale considerations"
DTSTART:20161025T121500
DTEND:20161025T131500
DTSTAMP:20260603T231602Z
UID:f76728b8e7ef8201ee38d25cf98c1335b5e9a44d989d4353cf56647a
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Janine Rüegg\, SBER\nAbstract: Stream ecological processes
  such as primary productivity or biomass are influenced by the environment
 al context\, meaning the physical\, chemical and biological properties of 
 the stream environment. Changes to the environmental context\, be it inter
 nal\, such as changes to the stream food web\, or external\, such as chang
 es in resource subsidies to stream ecosystems\, will affect ecological pro
 cesses. However\, the effects of such changes may be spatially and tempora
 lly limited or distinct to a specific scale. In this talk\, I will first p
 resent how the consideration of scale enhanced our understanding of an ext
 ernal change\, namely the use of salmon spawner resources by stream biofil
 ms. The data collected represent different spatial and temporal resolution
 s that resulted in different interpretation of the importance of salmon sp
 awners to stream biofilms and thus ecosystems. Secondly\, I will present h
 ow the decrease of large-bodied consumer\, mainly fish\, affected stream e
 cological processes at two distinct spatial scales of manipulation (dm2 an
 d 10s of m2)\, as well as how modeling may allow us to extrapolate experim
 ental outcomes to even larger spatial scales. Experimental manipulations a
 re difficult to maintain\, especially at larger spatial scales\, and knowl
 edge of how natural or manipulative experiments vary with its scale will a
 llow for the correct application of smaller scale experiments to the large
 r management scales.\n\nShort biography: Dr Janine Rüegg's research focus
 es on the context dependency of ecological processes in stream ecosystems.
  That context includes a careful consideration of both spatial and tempora
 l scale. She has studied context dependency and scale in many stream ecosy
 stems (coastal to alpine and tropical to arctic) and based on a variety of
  responses (ecosystem rates\, biofilm\, macroinvertebrates\, fish). To hig
 hlight just a few research findings: 1) Ecosystem rates in streams respond
 ed to the removal of large-bodied consumers\, such as fish\, shrimp\, or s
 alamanders\, but responses depend on the density of consumers\, as well as
  the scale of the experimental manipulation (1 m2 or 10-100s of m2). 2) Bi
 ofilm responses to the nutrient subsidy of and physical disturbance by Pac
 ific salmon spawners depended on environmental conditions among streams an
 d across years including the timing and magnitude of the salmon runs. Howe
 ver\, an adequate description of the biofilm responses to salmon spawners 
 required high-frequency measurements of biofilm\, salmon\, and physio-chem
 ical parameters that allowed for modeling of the salmon-biofilm interactio
 n within the context of environmental conditions. 3) Macroinvertebrate spe
 cies assemblages depended on the hydrologic and temperature regimes of alp
 ine streams. On her current SNF Ambizione funded project\, she is focusing
  on food webs as a whole\, and how their structure and function is determi
 ned by the environmental fluctuations of light\, temperature\, and dischar
 ge as well as carbon subsidies (organic matter inputs from outside the str
 eam).
LOCATION:GR A3 31 http://plan.epfl.ch/?room=GR%20A3%2031
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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