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- Title
Riverine macrosystems ecology: sensitivity, resistance, and resilience of whole river basins with human alterations.
- Authors
McCluney, Kevin E.; Poff, N. LeRoy; Palmer, Margaret A.; Thorp, James H.; Poole, Geoffrey C.; Williams, Bradley S.; Williams, Michael R.; Baron, Jill S.
- Abstract
Riverine macrosystems are described here as watershed-scale networks of connected and interacting riverine and upland habitat patches. Such systems are driven by variable responses of nutrients and organisms to a suite of global and regional factors (eg climate, human social systems) interacting with finer-scale variations in geo-logy, topography, and human modifications. We hypothesize that spatial heterogeneity, connectivity, and asyn-chrony among these patches regulate ecological dynamics of whole networks, altering system sensitivity, resis-tance, and resilience. Long-distance connections between patches may be particularly important in riverine macrosystems, shaping fundamental system properties. Furthermore, the type, extent, intensity, and spatial configuration of human activities (eg land-use change, dam construction) influence watershed-wide ecological properties through effects on habitat heterogeneity and connectivity at multiple scales. Thus, riverine macrosystems are coupled social-ecological systems with feedbacks that influence system responses to environ-mental change and the sustainable delivery of ecosystem services.
- Subjects
MACROECOLOGY; RIVER ecology; SENSITIVITY analysis; WATERSHEDS; CLIMATE change
- Publication
Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment, 2014, Vol 12, Issue 1, p48
- ISSN
1540-9295
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1890/120367