HR: 08:15h
AN: H11F-02 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Space-time integration to assess ecological response to river restoration efforts
AU: * Power, M E
EM: mepower@berkeley.edu
AF: University of California, Berkeley, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Wilcock, P
EM: wilcock@jhu.edu
AF: Johns Hopkins University, Geography & Environmental Engineering Johns Hopkins University 3400 N. Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21218 United States
AU: Dietrich, W E
EM: bill@eps.berkeley.edu
AF: University of California, Berkeley, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Palen, W
EM: wpalen@berkeley.edu
AF: University of California, Berkeley, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AU: Bode, C
EM: collin@berkeley.edu
AF: University of California, Berkeley, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720 United States
AB: To detect impacts of restoration measures on populations or ecosystem processes in rivers and watersheds, we must 1) relate local changes in state across the watershed to trajectories over time at downstream receiving points; and 2) distinguish responses to restoration measures from background fluctuations. Both tasks are challenging because of the extreme spatial heterogeneity and complex dynamics of watersheds and watershed processes over potentially relevant scales that range from seconds to centuries and mm2 to 1000's of km2. Despite these challenging realities, environmental scientists and managers are asked to assess the status and responses of riverine ecosystems following restoration efforts with modest, or no support for watershed-scale monitoring. Here we discuss selected research results that document temporal and spatial scales of responses to structural changes in channels by processes that underpin food webs that deliver ecosystem goods or services to society. The trajectories of some types of responses (e.g. uptake and detoxification or outgassing of pollutants) may be detectable over relatively short time scales (months or years); but others (population trajectories of resident salmonids) may require decades of monitoring before the magnitude and direction of effects are clear. We also discuss how new remote and in situ sensing technologies, and ongoing combinations of low and high tech approaches, could support the expanded monitoring programs that will be essential for realistic evaluations of the long-term efficacy of river restoration measures.
DE: 0439 Ecosystems, structure and dynamics (4815)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005