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Floods, Droughts, and Food Chains

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Topic
  • Ecology
  • Populations
  • Communities
  • Ecosystems
Duration
44 minutes 27 seconds
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Description

In this talk, ecologist Mary Power discusses how a river's community of herbivores and predators is affected by changes in river flow.

Many rivers of the world experience vast seasonal changes in flow rates. Power explores an example from Northern California by illustrating how the communities of herbivores and predators in the Eel River are affected by changes in river flow. Drought years with no winter floods generate a very different ecosystem compared to years with floods. Human-induced water shortages can also have a drastic detrimental effect on river ecology.

This talk is from a 2016 Holiday Lecture Series, Ecology of Rivers and Coasts: Food Webs and Human Impacts.

Details
Key Terms

algae, algal bloom, biomass, fish, food web, seasonality, top-down control, trophic cascade

Terms of Use

Please see the Terms of Use for information on how this resource can be used.

Version History
Date Published 10.13.16
Date Updated 04.03.17
Materials
Video (MP4) 342 MB
Transcript (PDF) 340 KB
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