Community Ecology of Stream Fishes: Concepts, Approaches, and Techniques

 

In 1985, a symposium held in Knoxville, Tennessee synthesized research on the ecology of North American Stream Fishes.  In 1987, contributions from this symposium were published in “Community and Evolutionary Ecology of North American Stream Fishes” edited by W. Matthews and D. Heins.  It has been 22 years since this symposium and numerous advances in theory and technology have altered the way scientist currently view stream fish ecology.  For example, advanced in remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) have lead to a more comprehensive landscape perspective of stream networks.  These advances have resulted in conceptual advances such as the “Riverscapes” perspective (e.g., Schlosser and Kallemeyne 2000; Fausch et al. 2002) and the River Network Dynamic hypothesis (Benda et al.2004).  Food web theory has been aided by the use of stable isotopes (e.g., Polis et al. 2004), elegant experiments showing important linkages between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems (e.g., Nakano et al. 1999) and concepts of ecological stoichiometry (e.g., Vanni et al. 2002).  Statistical methods such as information theory (Burnham and Anderson 1998) and artificial neural networks (e.g., Olden et al. 2006) have increased our rigor in drawing inferences from correlative data and predicting relationships between species distributions and environmental variables.  Moreover, stream fishes have been useful in testing the relative importance of equilibrium versus nonequilibrium processes (e.g., Grossman et al. 2006; Lobon-Cervia and Rincon 2004).  There are numerous other advances in this field that we hope to highlight in this symposium.

 

Specifics of the edited volume:

 

1) Contributed papers will present current work in the author’s field of study or a synthesis of previous studies.  We encourage synthetic work and development of conceptual models.

2) The five main themes below will be preceded by a 2-3 page summary that highlights major advances in that area.

 

Timeline:

 

December 2006 – submit proposal for symposium to local AFS committee

Spring 2007 – submit proposal for edited symposium to AFS publications office

Final confirmation from authors – Fall 2007

Abstract for AFS meeting and symposium due – February 29th, 2008 (submit abstracts to symposium organizers)

August 16 – 20, 2008 – Symposium at AFS meeting in Ottawa

August16 – 20  2008 – Manuscripts due to symposium coordinators

September 2008 - Chapters out for review

October 2008 - Reviews returned to authors

February-August 2009 - Revisions completed or additional reviews

March-August 2009 - Final editing, reference checking, permissions completed

March – August 2009 - Submission to AFS Editorial Office

 

 

 

Potential themes (approximately 24 contributions)

 

1)      Macroecology of stream fish communities:

a)      Synthesis of macroecological works dealing with freshwater fish communities (Hugueny and Oberdorff)

b)      Latitudinal patterns in community structure; comparisons of temperate–tropical, island mainland, etc. (Winemiller)

c)      Molecular approaches address stream fish ecology problems at multiple scales (Douglas and Douglas)

2)      Stream fish communities in landscapes: importance of connectivity:

a)      From metapopulations to metacommunities in stream fish (Falke and Fausch)

b)      Fish movement studies (Rodriguez)

c)      Spatial and connectivity issues with multivariate and predictive models (Peres-Neto)

a)      Riverscapes and foodweb subsidies (Baxter)

3)      Conservation challenges for stream fish communities:

a)      Biotic homogenization (Rahel)

b)      Climate change (Lek et al.)

c)      Invasion biology (Copp et al.)

d)      Landscape changes: land use and water quality effects on fish communities (Infante and Allan)

e)      Altered hydrology (Olden and Kennard)

4)      Structure and Dynamics of stream fish communities:

a)      Long-term stability of stream fishes (Taylor)

b)      Stability/equilibrium of stream fish communities (Grossman and Sabo)

c)      Persistence of longitudinal patterns in streams (Hitt and Roberts)

d)      Insights into early life history (Turner)

e)      Life history traits, guilds and functional groups (Frimpong and Angermeier)

f)       Statistical advances linking main drivers to stream fish community structure (Jackson)

g)      Drought/long-term stability of stream fish communities (Marsh-Matthews and Matthews)

h)      Arctic/freezing & ice scouring (Jones)

5)      Role of fishes in stream ecosystems:

a)      Disturbance mediated effects of stream fishes on ecosystem processes  (Gido, Bertrand, Murdock, Dodds and Whiles)

b)      Fishes in food webs:  predator-prey interactions, nutrient dynamics, stoichiometry (McIntyre and Flecker)  

c)      Food web subsidies (Flecker)

d)     Direct and indirect effects of predation on stream fish assemblages (Hoeinghaus, Pelicice and Garcia). 

 

Abstracts (updated 21 July 2008)


List of Contributors

Last name

First name

Affiliation

e-mail

Allan

David

University of Michagan

dallan@umich.edu

Angermeier

Paul

Virginia Tech Univeristy

biota@vt.edu

Baxter

Colden

Idaho State University

baxtcold@isu.edu

 

Blum

Mike

Tulane University

mjblum@tulane.edu

Copp

Gordon

Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science

gordon.copp@cefas.co.uk

 

Douglas

Michael

Illinois Natural History Survey

med@inhs.uiuc.edu

Douglas

Marlis

Illinois Natural History Survey

mrd@inhs.uiuc.edu

Falke

Jeffery

Colorado State University

jfalke@cnr.colostate.edu

Fausch

Kurt

 Colorado State University

kurtf@cnr.colostate.edu

Flecker

Alex

Cornell University

asf3@cornell.edu

Frimpong

Emmanuel

 Virginia Tech Univeristy

frimp@vt.edu

Garcia

Alexandre

Fundação Universidade Federal de Rio Grande

amgarcia@mikrus.com.br

Gido

Keith

 Kansas State University

kgido@ksu.edu

Grossman

Gary

 University of Georgia

grossman@uga.edu

Heins

David

 Tulane University

heins@tulane.edu

Hitt

Than

 Virginia Tech Univeristy

than@vt.edu

Hoeinghaus

David

Kansas State University

djhoeing@ksu.edu

Hugueny

Bernard

Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle

hugueny@biomserv.univ-lyon1.fr

Infante

Dana

Michigan State University

infanted@msu.edu

Jackson

Don

 University of Toronto

jackson@zoo.utoronto.ca

Jones

Nick

Trent University

nicholas.jones@ontario.ca

Kennard

Mark

Griffith University

m.kennard@griffith.edu.au

Lek

Sovan

Laboratoire Evolution Diversité Biologique

lek@cict.fr

Marsh-Matthews

Edie

 University of Oklahoma

emarsh@ou.edu

Matthews

Bill

 University of Oklahoma

wmatthews@ou.edu

McIntyre

Pete

University of Michigan

pbmcinty@umich.edu

Oberdorff

Thierry

Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle

oberdorf@mnhn.fr

Olden

Julian

 University of Washington

olden@u.washington.edu

Pelicice

Fernando

Universidade Estadual de Maringá

fmpelicice@gmail.com

Peres-Neto

Pedro

 University of Quebec at Montreal

peres-neto.pedro@uqam.ca

Rahel

Frank

University of Wyoming

FRahel@uwyo.edu

Roberts

Jamie

 Virginia Tech Univeristy

jarober1@vt.edu

Rodriguez

Marco

 University of Quebec at Trois-Rivieres

marco.rodriguez@uqtr.ca

Taylor

Chris

Texas Tech University

cm.taylor@ttu.edu

Turner

Tom

 University of New Mexico

turnert@unm.edu

Winemiller

Kirk

 Texas A&M University

k-winemiller@tamu

 


Literature Cited

 

Benda, L., N. L. Proff, D. Miller, T. Dunne, G. Reeves, G. Pess, and M. Pollock. 2004. The network dynamics hypothesis: how channel networks structure riverine habitats. BioScience, 54(5):413-427.

 

Burnham KP. Anderson DR. 1998.  Model Selection and Inference: A Practical Information-theoretic Approach. Springer-Verlag, New York. 353 pp.

 

Fausch, K. D., C. E. Torgersen, C. V. Baxter and H. W. Li. 2002. Landscapes to riverscapes: bridging the gap between research and conservation of stream fishes. BioScience, 52(6):483–498.

 

Grossman, G.D., Petty, J. T., Ratajczak, R. E., Hunter, M., Peterson, J.T. and Gael Grenouillet. 2006. Population dynamics of mottled sculpin (Pisces) in a variable environment: information theoretic approaches. Ecol. Monogr. 76: 217-234

 

J. Lobon-Cervia and P. A. Rincon.  2004.  Environmental determinants of recruitment and their

influence on the population dynamics of stream-living brown trout Salmo trutta.  Oikos 105:641-646.

 

Matthews, W.J. and D.C. Heins.  1987.  Community and evolutionary ecology of North American stream fishes.  University of Oklahoma Press.

 

Nakano, S., H. Miyasaka, and N. Kuhara. 1999.  Terrestrial-aquatic linkages: riparian arthropod inputs alter trophic cascades in a stream food web. Ecology 80:2435-2441.

 

Olden, J.D., Joy, M.K., and R.G. Death. 2006. Rediscovering the species in community-wide modeling. Ecological Applications 16: 1449-1460

 

Polis, G.A., M.E. Power, and G.R. Huxel (eds.).  2004.  Food Webs at the Landscape Level.  University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.

 

Schlosser, I. J. and L. K. Kallemeyne. 2000.Spatial variation in fish assemblages across a beaver-influenced successional landscape. Ecology 81:1371-1382.

 

Vanni, M.J., A. S. Flecker, J. M. Hood, and J. L. Headworth.  2002.  Stoichiometry of nutrient recycling by vertebrates in a tropical stream: linking species identiy and ecosystem processes. Ecology Letters 5:285-293.