NABS Plenary: The Abiotic Template in Flowing Waters II
Presiding: T Bullen, U.S. Geological Survey; A Packman, Northwestern University; M R Whiles, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale; W Dodds, Kansas State University
NB12A-01 INVITED 10:30h
NABS Plenary: Shifts in River Dynamics Translate to Shifts in Coastal Ecosystems
Certainly the Mississippi River is not what it was in the early 1800s when settlers crossed the expanse of the continent. The locks, dams and reservoirs along its tributaries have changed the quantity and quality of flow and its constituents. Humans have altered the landscape, river channel and flood plain. Pollutants and contaminants are added along the way. The recipient of the changed effluent is the northern Gulf of Mexico. As the river and the processing of materials along the transit have changed, so has the adjacent continental shelf ecosystem. There the long-evolved ecosystem is subject to different hydrology, somewhat in amount and certainly in frequency, altered nutrient loads, and altered sediment loads. The gradual changes over the last century and a half and acceleration of change in the watershed in the last half of the 20th century are paralleled by similar changes in the coastal ecosystem adjacent to the river effluents. Basic shifts have occurred in the ecosystem from the primary production base and its composition and subsequently through the trophic structure to the fisheries. Eutrophication has resulted, and widespread, severe seasonal hypoxia is now present on the continental shelf where all indicators point to its absence historically.
NB12A-02 11:00h
To Restore The Reach, Look Up: Understanding Watershed-scale and Long-term Changes in Physical and Ecological Process as a Basis for Sustainable Ecosystem Restoration
There is no abstract associated with this presentation.
NB12A-03 11:30h
Patterns, Sources and Consequences of Decadal to Multidecadal (D2M) Climate Variability in the Western U.S.
There is no abstract associated with this presentation.