Riverine Food Webs: How Flow Rates Affect Biomass

This video follows ecologist Mary Power, who is studying the Eel River in Northern California to decipher the connection between river flows and biodiversity.

Rivers are dynamic ecosystems that change in space and time, but they also have clear boundaries that make them amenable to study. Power has been studying the Eel River for 25 years to address the question of how the amount of water flowing in the river affects the food chain and the health of the ecosystem overall. Her work has revealed how the presence or absence of a spring flood can shape the organisms that thrive for the rest of the year. This research provides an example of how physical changes in climate may affect ecosystems in the future.

An audio descriptive version of the film is available via our media player.