HR: 09:00h
AN: NB51E-02 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: A Model of Biocomplexity in River Networks - Part II: Tenets and Predictions
AU: * Delong, M D
EM: mdelong@winona.edu
AF: Winoa State University, Large River Studies Center Biology Department Winona State University, Winona, MN 55987 United States
AU: Thorp, J H
EM: thorp@ku.edu
AF: University of Kansas, Kansas Biological Survey University of Kansas 142 Higuchi Hall 2101 Constant Avenue, Lawrence, KS 66047 United States
AU: Thoms, M C
EM: martin.thoms@canberra.edu.au
AF: University of Canberra, CRC for Freshwater Ecology University of Canberra , Canberra, ACT 2601 Australia
AB: We are proposing a model of lotic biocomplexity encompassing spatiotemporal scales from headwaters to large rivers and from main channels to floodplains. Part I of our presentation in the symposium discusses the general theory and predicted changes along longitudinal gradients in the river network. In Part II, we use the foundation of this theory to make predictions for the ecological behavior of the river ecosystem. These predictions are designed to stimulate research tests of these hypotheses and to obtain data allowing the continuing refinement of the overall model. Fourteen principles or model tenets are included which describe the functioning of epigean portions of lotic ecosystems on ecological time scales; they are focused more on the riverscape than the entire riverine landscape. These 14 tenets predict how patterns of individual species distributions, community regulation, lotic ecosystem processes, and floodplain interactions will vary over spatiotemporal scales, especially as they relate to the functional process zones formed by hydrogeomorphic patches. We make no claim to originality for all these tenets. Some of these ideas are well supported in the scientific literature, others may be acceptable to the scientific community but currently lack empirical support, and some may be very speculative and possibly controversial.
DE: 9810 New fields (not classifiable under other headings)
SC: North American Benthological Society [NB]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly