Floods, Droughts, and Food Chains
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.
algae, algal bloom, biomass, fish, food web, seasonality, top-down control, trophic cascade