The River Continuum Concept

Vannote, Robin L.; Minshall, G. Wayne; Cummins, Kenneth W.; Sedell, James R.; Cushing, Colbert E.

doi:10.1139/f80-017

Cited by 8,215 publications

(6,595 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Rivers, from their origin to the mouth, are a continuum with changes in the uppermost reaches affecting the whole ecosystem downstream (e.g., Vannote et al, 1980;Füreder, 2007). High alpine benthic larvae are an important link in stream food webs, as they initially take up and store allochthonous and autochthonous organic material in the stream (Beracko et al, 2016;Niedrist & Füreder, 2017).…”

Section: S a Schütz (And) á L Füredermentioning

confidence: 99%

Unexpected patterns of chironomid larval size in an extreme environment: a highly glaciated, alpine stream

Schütz

Füreder

2018

Hydrobiologia

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In this article, we report on the development and growth of alpine chironomid species in a highly glaciated headwater, using biometrical analyses. Glacially influenced alpine streams are characterized by year-round harsh environmental conditions. Only a few, highly adapted benthic insects, mainly chironomid larvae (genus Diamesa) live in these extreme conditions. Although several studies have shown patterns in ecosystem structure and function in alpine streams, cause-effect relationships of abiotic components on aquatic insects' life strategies are still unknown. Sampling was performed at Schlatenbach, a river draining the Schlatenkees (Hohe Tauern NP, Austria), at three sites and on six occasions from August to October 2015. Semi-quantitatively sampled Diamesa cinerella (Meigen 1835) and Diamesa steinboecki (Goetghebuer 1933) larvae were biometrically analysed, and they showed differences in larval size and biovolume with higher values close to the glacier.Considering the decreasing water temperatures but increasing benthic organic matter towards the glacier, food availability seems to play a crucial role for larval size in highly glaciated alpine headwaters. This is the first study to show that harsh conditions in these environments (low temperatures, high turbidity and flow dynamics) may exclude many taxa, but favour other, highly adapted species, when their essential needs (food quality and quantity) are guaranteed.

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Section: S a Schütz (And) á L Füredermentioning

confidence: 99%

Unexpected patterns of chironomid larval size in an extreme environment: a highly glaciated, alpine stream

Schütz

Füreder

2018

Hydrobiologia

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“…The classic River Continuum Concept (RCC) 55 was developed to explain gradual and continuous longitudinal changes in stream and river geomorphology and ecology. An implicit assumption of this model was that small-scale observations can be scaled up to predict patterns in larger rivers.…”

Section: Microbially Nitrified Nomentioning

confidence: 99%

Sources and Transport of Nitrogen in Arid Urban Watersheds

Hale

Turnbull

Earl

et al. 2014

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Urban watersheds are often sources of nitrogen (N) to downstream systems, contributing to poor water quality. However, it is unknown which components (e.g., land cover and stormwater infrastructure type) of urban watersheds contribute to N export and which may be sites of retention. In this study we investigated which watershed characteristics control N sourcing, biogeochemical processing of nitrate (NO 3 − ) during storms, and the amount of rainfall N that is retained within urban watersheds. We used triple isotopes of NO 3 − (δ 15 N, δ 18 O, and Δ 17 O) to identify sources and transformations of NO 3 − during storms from 10 nested arid urban watersheds that varied in stormwater infrastructure type and drainage area. Stormwater infrastructure and land coverretention basins, pipes, and grass cover dictated the sourcing of NO 3 − in runoff. Urban watersheds were strong sinks or sources of N to stormwater depending on runoff, which in turn was inversely related to retention basin density and positively related to imperviousness and precipitation. Our results suggest that watershed characteristics control the sources and transport of inorganic N in urban stormwater but that retention of inorganic N at the time scale of individual runoff events is controlled by hydrologic, rather than biogeochemical, mechanisms.

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“…As most rivers are usually experiencing several kinds of disturbances simultaneously, the accuracy of these indices will decrease owing to interactions among disturbances (Guzkowska and Gasse, 1990). As for community indices, the relationships between anthropogenic influences and respondence of indices are often nonlinear (Boyle et al, 1990;Vannote et al, 1980), so these indices are usually unfit for assessment. As multimetric indices can avoid problems mentioned above, more and more researchers prefer the third approach.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using Epilithic Diatom Communities to Assess Ecological Condition of Xiangxi River System

Tang

Cai

Liu

2006

Environ Monit Assess

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Abstract. Assessment method for ecological condition of Xiangxi River system was studied by using 13 candidate metrics of epilithic diatom which can reflect conditions in pH, salinity, nitrogen uptake metabolism, oxygen requirements, saprobity, trophic state, morphological character and pollution tolerant capability etc. By one-way ANOVA, the metrics of relative abundance of acidobiontic algae (ACID), freshwater algae (FRESH), high oxygen requirement (HIGH-O), eutraphentic state (EUTRA) and mobile taxa (MOBILE) were suitable for distinguishing sites in different conditions. Then, the river diatom index (RDI) composed of these five metrics was used to evaluate ecological condition of the river. The results showed that the healthiest sites were in the Guanmenshan Natural Reserve (with the mean RDI of 79.73). The sites located in tributary of Jiuchong River also owned excellent state (mean RDI of 78.25). Mean RDI of another tributary -Gufu River and the main river were 70.85 and 68.45 respectively, and the unhealthiest tributary was Gaolan River (with mean RDI of 65.64). The mean RDI for all the 51 sites was 71.40. The competence of RDI was discussed with comparison of evaluation results of DAIpo and TDI, it can be concluded that multimetrics is more competent in assessment task.

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The River Continuum Concept

Abstract: W e attempted to determine the extent to which benthic diatoms contribute to water column primary productivity in shallow-water estuaries and to elucidate the primary mechanisms responsible for suspending the diatoms. A preliminarj study conducted i n M u g u Lagoon, Calqornia BE WS WE

Cited by 8,215 publications

References 27 publications

Unexpected patterns of chironomid larval size in an extreme environment: a highly glaciated, alpine stream

Unexpected patterns of chironomid larval size in an extreme environment: a highly glaciated, alpine stream

Sources and Transport of Nitrogen in Arid Urban Watersheds

Using Epilithic Diatom Communities to Assess Ecological Condition of Xiangxi River System

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