Stream Health: Incorporating the Human Dimension to Advance Stream Ecology

Meyer, Judy L.

doi:10.2307/1468029

Cited by 222 publications

(156 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Certainly, the next step of getting anglers to actually target different species (i.e., those that prosper in lowproductivity environments) could represent an even more daunting challenge. Second, because proper ecosystem management strategies attempt to conserve ecological structure and function, as well as sustain important human uses and ecosystem services (Meyer 1997, Brussard et al 1998, managing for the health of ecosystems undergoing oligotrophication arguably will be tricky; nutrient abatement clearly has both associated benefits (e.g., improved water clarity, reduced bottom anoxia, recovery of macrophytes, Hexagenia spp., and sport and commercial fishes) and costs (e.g., reductions in the economically important walleye fishery). Basically, resource managers, ideally with public input, must decide whether to manage for continued ecosystem rehabilitation (continue on the path of oligotrophication) or perhaps for the success of only a few economically important species (relax controls on phosphorus loading).…”

Section: Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life After Death in Lake Erie: Nutrient Controls Drive Fish Species Richness, Rehabilitation

Ludsin

Kershner

Blocksom

et al. 2001

Ecological Applications

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We explored the recent dynamics of fish communities within Lake Erie, a system formerly degraded by eutrophication and now undergoing oligotrophication owing to phosphorus abatement programs. By merging bottom trawl data from two lake basins of contrasting productivity with life-history information (i.e., tolerances to environmental degradation, diet and temperature preferences), we examined (1) the relationship between system productivity and species richness, (2) whether fish communities are resilient to eutrophication, and (3) whether oligotrophication necessarily leads to reduced sport and commercial fish production. Reduced phosphorus loading has led to fish community rehabilitation. In the productive west basin, six species tolerant of eutrophy (i.e., anoxia, turbidity) declined in abundance, whereas the abundance of three intolerant species increased through time. In the less productive central basin, although only one tolerant species declined, four species intolerant of eutrophic conditions recovered with oligotrophication. These differential responses appear to derive from dissimilar mechanisms by which reduced productivity alters habitat and resource availability for fishes. Specifically, enhanced bottom oxygen, combined with reduced biogenic turbidity and sedimentation, likely drove the loss of tolerant species in the west basin by reducing detrital mass or the ability of these species to compete with intolerant species under conditions of improved water clarity. In contrast, reduced bottom anoxia, which enhanced availability of cool-and cold-water habitat and benthic macroinvertebrate communities, appears important to the recovery of intolerant species in the central basin. Ultimately, these productivity-induced shifts caused species richness to decline in Lake Erie's west basin and to increase in its central basin. Beyond confirming that unimodal models of productivity and species diversity can describe fish community change in a recovering system, our results provide optimism in an otherwise dismal state of affairs in fisheries management (e.g., overexploitation), given that many recovering intolerant species are desired sport or commercial fishes.

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Section: Management Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life After Death in Lake Erie: Nutrient Controls Drive Fish Species Richness, Rehabilitation

Ludsin

Kershner

Blocksom

et al. 2001

Ecological Applications

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“…A healthy stream may be defined as an ecosystem that is sustainable and resilient, maintaining its ecological structure and function over time while continuing to meet societal needs and expectations (Meyer 1997). Such streams provide a range of 570 New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 1997, Vol.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Land‐water interactions at Whatawhata, New Zealand: Introduction and synthesis

Quinn

Cooper

1997

New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research

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A programme of research is introduced on the effects on stream ecosystems of land-use change from native forest to pasture, and subsequent re-afforestation with exotic pine plantations. The results detailed in the 11 accompanying papers conclude that land-use change has had strong effects on many key physical, chemical, and biological aspects of stream ecosystems in and adjacent to Whatawhata Research Centre, near Hamilton, New Zealand. Six of these papers compare streams, draining catchments with similar topography, geology, and soils, to investigate land-use effects on stream lighting, water quality, channel morphology, benthic and hyporheic habitat and faunas, fish, and food webs. Two papers investigate hypotheses on the influence of shade and crayfish using streamside mesocosms. Finally, three papers use the experimental sites to evaluate methods for studying crayfish populations, stream carbon pathways, and a stream temperature model. These studies provide a comprehensive description of land-use effects on physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of streams and contribute to the basis for future long-term ecological research on the effects on streams of sustainable land management practices.

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“…For example, the objective of the federal Clean Water Act in the USA is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters. While many have argued that a healthy stream is an ecosystem that is sustainable and resilient, maintaining its ecological structure and function over time while continuing to meet societal needs and expectations (Meyer 1997;Norris and Thoms 1999;Davies et al 2010). The second concept of river health is incorporating both ecological integrity (maintaining structure and function) and human values (what society values in the ecosystem) (Meyer 1997;Karr 1999).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While many have argued that a healthy stream is an ecosystem that is sustainable and resilient, maintaining its ecological structure and function over time while continuing to meet societal needs and expectations (Meyer 1997;Norris and Thoms 1999;Davies et al 2010). The second concept of river health is incorporating both ecological integrity (maintaining structure and function) and human values (what society values in the ecosystem) (Meyer 1997;Karr 1999). Although inclusion of the human dimension gives the concept of stream health part of its novelty and may provide some impetus for advances in river ecology (Meyer 1997), it is difficult to identify the important ecological assets and services such as clean drinking water or fisheries production, and the human effect on this aspect.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The second concept of river health is incorporating both ecological integrity (maintaining structure and function) and human values (what society values in the ecosystem) (Meyer 1997;Karr 1999). Although inclusion of the human dimension gives the concept of stream health part of its novelty and may provide some impetus for advances in river ecology (Meyer 1997), it is difficult to identify the important ecological assets and services such as clean drinking water or fisheries production, and the human effect on this aspect. Therefore, the first point, only considering ecological integrity is evaluated in this paper.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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