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ECOLOGICAL THRESHOLDS AND RESPONSES OF STREAM BENTHIC COMMUNITIES TO HEAVY METALS
Impact/Purpose:
This project will identify and validate threshold responses of stream ecosystems to anthropogenic disturbance. We hypothesize that the location of ecological thresholds along a well defined stressor gradient will vary among state variables and will be influenced by local (reach-scale) and landscape level environmental drivers.
Description:
The most significant expected result from this research will be the identification of ecological thresholds for a suite of state variables across several levels fo biological organization. We expect that these state variables will likely show different statistical distributions. Therefore, we will make specific recommendations concerning the applicability of several parametric and nonparametric approaches for locating thresholds. We predict that the location of thresholds along stressor gradients will vary among state variables and will be infuenced by reach-scale and landscape level environmental drivers. We will also assess the ecological significance of these thresholds and provide water resource managers with guidelines regarding the effectiveness of different levels of remediation.
Record Details:
Record Type:PROJECT(
ABSTRACT
)
Start Date:07/31/2005
Completion Date:12/30/2007
Record ID:
169243
Keywords:
STREAMS, ECOLOGICAL THRESHOLDS, STATISTICAL MODELING, HEAVY METALS, RESILIENCE, ROCKY MOUNTAINS,
Related Organizations:
Role
:OWNER
Organization Name
:COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
Citation
:Ft Collins
State
:CO
Zip Code
:80523
Project Information:
Approach
:We will integrate results of stream microcosm experiments and spatially extensive surveys of 79 Colorado streams to locate ecological thresholds along gradients of heavy metal contamination. Using a variety of parametric and nonparametric statistical procedures, we will quantify the influence of environmental drivers on ecological thresholds and test the hypothesis that thresholds vary among watersheds. We will validate and assess the ecological relevance of these thresholds using (1) results of a long-term (15 year) survey of the Arkansas River, a metal polluted stream in central Colorado undergoing remediation; and (2) a spatially extensive survey of 19 streams in the same region.
Cost
:$295,760.00
Research Component
:Aquatic Ecosystems
Project IDs:
ID Code
:R832441
Project type
:EPA Grant