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Presented at the NABS Annual meeting, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 2002
in Disturbance Ecology IV
SIMULATING THE STREAM ECOSYSTEM: THE INFLUENCE OF LAND-USE CHANGE.
N. Broekhuizen, J.C. Rutherford, J.M. Quinn, and M.R. Scarsbrook. National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd., P.O. Box 11-115, Silverdale Rd., Hamilton, New Zealand
We will present a spatially resolved, dynamic model of the stream ecosystem. This incorporates nutrients, dissolved organic and particulate organic matter, periphyton, heterotrophic microbes and invertebrates. We will demonstrate that, after calibration of a few ‘free-fit’ parameters, the model can reproduce many characteristics of an independent dataset.
The model provides a valuable experimental tool with which to investigate the relative importance of factors including flow, temperature, light and detrital inputs as determinants of structure in stream communities. Furthermore, the model can help to predict the short-, and long-term consequences of landuse-change. This is useful because, though there are good data concerning the state, and functioning of lotic ecosystems in many catchment-types, there is little information concerning the rate at which the ecosystem will respond to either: catchment-scale or sub-catchment scale (mosaic) landuse changes. We will use the model to forecast the manner in which the stream biota will change in response to the ongoing afforestation of the Whatawhata study catchment (North Island, New Zealand)
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