Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory

27 Mar, 02 AM - 30 Mar, 09 AM

Models of sediment transport are beginning to include the impacts of biological organisms in an effort to bridge the two disciplines of Geomorphology and Ecology. However, predictions from models rarely match field conditions. One possible reason this may be is that researchers who include 'biology' simply pick single, and usually dominant, species. This approach ignores the fact that multiple species coexist and interact in the same place. My research explicitly asks whether multispecies systems influence sediment transport in rivers different than single species systems. I use a model organism called hydropsychid caddisflies (Trichoptera:Hydropsychidae) to investigate how multiple species influence incipient sediment motion (sometimes called the critical shear stress). Caddisflies are insects that live in the benthic substrate of rivers as larvae. They are filter feeders and spin silk nets to catch food particles out of the water. Because they can become quite dense in nature, cadddisfly nets have the potential to bind sediments together and increase the shear stress required to initiate sediment motion during a flood. Using laboratory flumes in SNARL's fish house and SNARL's Disney Channels, I manipulate the number of caddisfly species that are present in a stream and monitor incipient motion.

Visit #27293 @Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory

Approved

Under Project # 24812 | Research

Impacts of biological diversity on critical shear stress in experimental rivers

graduate_student - University of California, Santa Barbara

Reservation Members(s)

Lindsey Albertson Mar 27 - 30, 2012 (4 days)
Lindsey Albertson Mar 27 - 30, 2012 (4 days)

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