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DigitalCommons@USU
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The Earth's surface is shaped by the interaction of tectonics, water, sediment, solutes, and biota over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales and across diverse environments. Development of a predictive science of Earth surface dynamics...
2006-01-01
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Phosphorus and nitrogen cause algal blooms that decrease water quality of lakes, rivers and coastal ecosystems. Although phosphorus control has frequently been implemented to reduce eutrophication, several lines of evidence indicate that nitrogen...
2015-03-31
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Aim Freshwater biodiversity is declining world-wide as a result of human-caused degradation of freshwater ecosystems. Declines in species richness are well documented for many taxonomic groups, but less is known about how and why species...
2014-01-01
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1. Stream temperature is thought to be a primary determinant of the macro-spatial distribution of stream biota, but we lack temperature data for most streams. Past research often relied on surrogates, such as altitude, latitude, catchment area...
2014-01-01
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Species distribution models rely on the assumption that species' distributions are at equilibrium with environmental conditions within a region – i.e. they occur in all suitable habitats. If this assumption holds, species occurrence should be...
2014-01-01
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We use a predictive model of mean summer stream temperature to assess the vulnerability of USA streams to thermal alteration associated with climate change. The model uses air temperature and watershed features (e.g., watershed area and slope)...
2014-01-01
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We assessed the performance of biological indices developed for invertebrate assemblages occurring in arid zone streams: a multimetric index (MMI) and an O/E index of taxonomic completeness. Our overall goal was to advance our understanding of the...
2014-01-01
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Ecologically meaningful and scientifically defensible nutrient criteria are needed to protect the water quality of USA streams. Criteria based on our best understanding of naturally occurring nutrient concentrations would protect both water...
2013-01-01
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We used field-derived data from streams in Nevada, USA, to quantify relationships between stream biological condition, in-stream stressors, and potential sources of stress (land use). We used 2 freshwater macroinvertebrate-based indices to measure...
2013-01-01
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Temperature is a primary driver of the structure and function of stream ecosystems. However, the lack of stream temperature (ST) data for the vast majority of streams and rivers severely compromises our ability to describe patterns of thermal...
2013-01-01
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1. We tested how strongly aquatic macroinvertebrate taxa richness and composition were associated with natural variation in both flow regime and stream temperatures across streams of the western United States. 2. We used long-term flow records...
2010-01-01
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1. Overlapping river and road networks provide a framework for studying the complex interactions between natural and human systems, with river-road intersections as focal areas of study. Roads can alter the morphology of stream channels, pose...
2010-01-01
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Assessing the biodiversity of macroinvertebrate fauna in freshwater ecosystems is an essential component of both basic ecological inquiry and applied ecological assessments. Aspects of taxonomic diversity and composition in freshwater communities...
2010-01-01
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1. The statistical rigour and interpretability of ecological assessments is strongly affected by how well we predict the biological assemblages expected to occur in the absence of human-caused stress, i.e. the reference condition. In this study,...
2010-01-01
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Benchmarks provide context and are a critical element of all ecological assessments. Over the last 25 y, hundreds of papers have been published on various aspects of ecological assessments, and most of the analyses described in these papers depend...
2010-01-01
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The Wadeable Streams Assessment (WSA) provided the first statistically sound summary of the ecological condition of streams and small rivers in the US. Information provided in the assessment filled an important gap in meeting the requirements of...
2008-01-01
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One of the biggest challenges when conducting a continental-scale assessment of streams is setting appropriate expectations for the assessed sites. The challenge occurs for 2 reasons: 1) tremendous natural environmental heterogeneity exists within...
2008-01-01
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We examined the effects of different regionalization schemes on the performance of River InVertebrate Prediction and Classification System (RIVPACS)-type predictive models in assessing the biological conditions of streams of the US for the...
2008-01-01
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Inferences drawn from regional bioassessments could be strengthened by integrating data from different monitoring programs. We combined data from the US Geological Survey National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) program and the US Environmental...
2008-01-01
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The increasing demand for tools that can score biological condition from aquatic community data has spurred the creation of many predictive models (e.g., observed/expected [O/E] indices) and multimetric indices (MMIs). The geographic and...
2008-01-01
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