@article {5987, title = {Assessing linkages between small impoundments and long-term trajectories of prairie stream fish assemblages}, journal = {The American Midland Naturalist}, volume = {185}, year = {2021}, pages = {187 - 200}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1674/0003-0031-185.2.187}, url = {https://bioone.org/journals/the-american-midland-naturalist/volume-185/issue-2/0003-0031-185.2.187/Assessing-Linkages-Between-Small-Impoundments-and-Long-term-Trajectories-of/10.1674/0003-0031-185.2.187.short}, author = {Hedden, Skyler C. and Lindsey A. Bruckerhoff and K. B. Gido} } @article {5988, title = {Disentangling effects of predators and landscape factors as drivers of stream fish community structure}, journal = {Freshwater Biology}, volume = {66}, year = {2021}, pages = {656 - 668}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1111/fwb.13668}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/fwb.13668}, author = {Lindsey A. Bruckerhoff and K. B. Gido and Estey, Michael and Moore, P.J.} } @article {5986, title = {Do fine-scale experiments underestimate predator consumption rates?}, journal = {Journal of Animal Ecology}, volume = {90}, year = {2021}, pages = {2391 - 2403}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1111/1365-2656.13549}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/13652656/90/10}, author = {Lindsey A. Bruckerhoff and Pennock, C.A. and K. B. Gido} } @article {KNZ001993, title = {Biomass loss and change in species dominance shift stream community excretion stoichiometry during severe drought}, journal = {Freshwater Biology}, volume = {65}, year = {2020}, pages = {403-416}, abstract = {

\ \ \  1. Animals contribute significantly to nutrient cycling through excretion, but most studies consider their effects under relatively benign abiotic conditions. Disturbances such as drought may alter animals\’ nutrient contributions through shifts in species composition and biomass. Headwater streams are particularly vulnerable to extreme climate events and thus might show rapid changes in stream biota and their ecosystem effects.
\ \ \  2. We tested how biomass and subsequent ecosystem effects (nutrient cycling) of an intermittent prairie stream community changed during a drought. We quantified the biomass and contributions to nutrient cycling for assemblages comprising fishes, crayfish, and tadpoles in 12 isolated pools over 3 months encompassing the harshest drought on record for Kings Creek, KS, U.S.A. We predicted that macroconsumer biomass would decline with pool surface area and that differences in macroconsumer biomass and taxonomic composition would lead to different contributions of pool assemblages to nutrient cycling.
\ \ \  3. The biomass of pool assemblages declined with decreasing pool size, a pattern apparently driven by mortality, emigration, or metamorphosis. We also observed a change in assemblage structure of drying pools during drought relative to pool size, shifting dominance toward species with more drought-resistant traits. Accordingly, assemblage nitrogen (N) excretion rates declined as pool biomass was reduced, leading to a 58\% reduction in N available to epilithic biofilms. Phosphorus (P) excretion rates declined from June to July, but increased in August, as species with high P excretion rates maintained similar proportional biomass and biomass of a non-native fish increased. Molar N:P of pool assemblage excretion declined significantly throughout the drought and coincided with loss of southern redbelly dace (Chrosomus erythrogaster: Cyprinidae).
\ \ \  4. Animal-mediated nutrient cycling was altered by the loss of biomass and stoichiometric traits of taxa that differed in their occurrences and ability to tolerate abiotic conditions during drought. Elevated availability of dissolved N in isolated pools may increase N uptake rates by biofilms during drought conditions, indicating the importance of N excreted by aggregated macroconsumers, especially those with unique stoichiometric traits. While the significance of shifts in the composition of freshwater communities to ecosystems is not entirely known, additional losses in ecosystem function and changes in community structure may follow episodes of severe drought.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1111/fwb.13433}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/fwb.13433}, author = {Hopper, Garrett W. and K. B. Gido and Pennock, Casey A. and Hedden, Skyler C. and Guinnip, James P. and Fisher, Molly A. and Tobler, Courtney M. and Hedden, Crosby K. and Lindsey A. Bruckerhoff} } @article {KNZ001946, title = {Harmony on the prairie? Grassland plant and animal community responses to variation in climate across land-use gradients}, journal = {Ecology}, volume = {101}, year = {2020}, pages = {e02986}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, issn = {0012-9658}, doi = {10.1002/ecy.2986}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ecy.2986}, author = {Lindsey A. Bruckerhoff and Connell, R. Kent and James P. Guinnip and Adhikari, Elina and Godar, Alixandra and K. B. Gido and W. A. Boyle and Hope, Andrew G and Anthony Joern and Welti, Ellen} } @article {KNZ002003, title = {Nowhere to swim: interspecific responses of prairie stream fishes in isolated pools during severe drought}, journal = {Aquatic Sciences}, volume = {82}, year = {2020}, abstract = {

Extreme drying can dramatically shift abiotic characteristics of streams and species respond differently as conditions change. We modified a conceptual model describing responses of aquatic invertebrate assemblages to stream drying to facilitate predictions of fish assemblage shifts in which thresholds of physiochemical gradients lead to punctuated losses of fish diversity as stream connectivity diminishes. We tested the applicability of this model during a record-breaking drought that reduced a perennial reach of a headwater prairie stream to a series of 12 isolated pools with variable levels of hyporheic connectivity that was associated with pool volume. We tracked fish assemblage structure in pools over seven weeks and measured abiotic conditions. Inter-specific differences in drought resistance traits were tested in the lab (i.e., thermal and hypoxia tolerance) for common species experiencing drought conditions. Species richness declined rapidly with pool volume associated with hyporheic connectivity. Abundance of the most common species prior to drought, Chrosomus erythrogaster (southern redbelly dace) declined 95\% and was extirpated from five pools during drought due to its low thermal tolerance. Despite being the least tolerant to hypoxia, Campostoma anomalum (central stoneroller) populations persisted in most pools. The remaining pools became dominated by a non-native extremophile fish, Gambusia affinis (western mosquitofish) and abundances of less resistant native species declined. Our study demonstrates that richness in drying pools is driven by factors associated with pool volume, and assemblage composition shifts from dominance by native species adapted to variable hydrological conditions to non-native species able to resist increasing temperatures and hypoxia. Sudden species loss associated with reduced stream connectivity can shift abundance patterns of prairie stream fish communities with potentially lagged effects on population and community dynamics.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, issn = {1015-1621}, doi = {10.1007/s00027-020-0716-2}, url = {http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s00027-020-0716-2}, author = {Hopper, Garrett W. and K. B. Gido and Pennock, Casey A. and Hedden, Skyler C. and Frenette, Bryan D. and Barts, Nick and Hedden, Crosby K. and Lindsey A. Bruckerhoff} } @article {KNZ001964, title = {The freshwater biome gradient framework: predicting macroscale properties based on latitude, altitude, and precipitation}, journal = {Ecosphere}, volume = {10}, year = {2019}, pages = {e02786}, abstract = {

Understanding global ecological patterns and processes, from biogeochemical to biogeographical, requires broad-scale macrosystems context for comparing and contrasting ecosystems. Climate gradients (precipitation and temperature) and other continental-scale patterns shape freshwater environments due to their influences on terrestrial environments and their direct and indirect effects on the abiotic and biotic characteristics of lakes, streams, and wetlands. We combined literature review, analyses of open access data, and logical argument to assess abiotic and biotic characters of freshwater systems across gradients of latitude and elevation that drive precipitation, temperature, and other variability. We explored the predictive value of analyzing patterns in freshwater ecosystems at the global macrosystems scale. We found many patterns based on climate, particularly those dependent upon hydrologic characteristics and linked to characteristics of terrestrial biomes. For example, continental waters of dry areas will generally be widely dispersed and have higher probability of drying and network disconnection, greater temperatures, greater inorganic turbidity, greater salinity, and lower riparian canopy cover relative to areas with high precipitation. These factors will influence local community composition and ecosystem rates. Enough studies are now available at the continental or global scale to start to characterize patterns under a coherent conceptual framework, though considerable gaps exist in the tropics and less developed regions. We present illustrative global-scale trends of abiotic, biotic, and anthropogenic impacts in freshwater ecosystems across gradients of precipitation and temperature to further understanding of broad-scale trends and to aid prediction in the face of global change. We view freshwater systems as occurring across arrays of multiple gradients (including latitude, altitude, and precipitation) rather than areas with specific boundaries. While terrestrial biomes capture some variability along these gradients that influence freshwaters, other features such as, slope, geology, and historical glaciation also influence freshwaters. Our conceptual framework is not so much a single hypothesis as a way to logically characterize patterns in freshwaters at scales relevant to (1) evolutionary processes that give rise to freshwater biodiversity, (2) regulatory units that influence freshwater ecosystems, and (3) the current scope of anthropogenic impacts on freshwaters and the vital ecosystem services they provide.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ}, doi = {10.1002/ecs2.2786}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/21508925/10/7}, author = {W. K. Dodds and Lindsey A. Bruckerhoff and Batzer, Darold and Schechner, Anne and Pennock, Casey and Renner, Elizabeth and Tromboni, Flavia and Bigham, Kari and Grieger, Samantha} } @article {KNZ001987, title = {Temperature effects on performance and physiology of two prairie stream minnows}, journal = {Conservation Physiology}, volume = {7}, year = {2019}, pages = {coz063}, abstract = {

Earth\’s atmosphere has warmed by ~1\°C over the past century and continues to warm at an increasing rate. Effects of atmospheric warming are already visible in most major ecosystems and are evident across all levels of biological organization. Linking functional responses of individuals to temperature is critical for predicting responses of populations and communities to global climate change. The southern redbelly dace Chrosomus erythrogaster and the central stoneroller Campostoma anomalum are two minnows (Cyprinidae) that commonly occur in the Flint Hills region of the USA but show different patterns of occurrence, with dace largely occupying headwater reaches and stonerollers persisting in both headwater and intermediate-sized streams. We tested for differences between species in critical thermal maximum, energy metabolism, sustained swimming and activity over an ecologically relevant temperature gradient of acclimation temperatures. Typically, metrics increased with acclimation temperature for both species, although stoneroller activity decreased with temperature. We observed a significant interaction between species and temperature for critical thermal maxima, where stonerollers only had higher critical thermal maxima at the coldest temperature and at warm temperatures compared to the dace. We did not find evidence suggesting differences in the energy metabolism of dace and stonerollers. We detected interspecific differences in sustained swimming performance, with dace having higher swimming speed than stonerollers regardless of acclimation temperature. Finally, there was a significant interaction between temperature and species for activity; dace activity was higher at intermediate and warm temperatures compared to stonerollers. We observed subtle interspecific differences in how performance metrics responded to temperature that did not always align with observed patterns of distribution for these species. Thus, other ecological factors likely are important drivers of distributional patterns in these species.

}, keywords = {LTER-KNZ, Activity, fish, metabolism, swimming performance, Temperature, thermal limit}, doi = {10.1093/conphys/coz063}, url = {https://academic.oup.com/conphys/article-pdf/7/1/coz063/30337107/coz063.pdf}, author = {Frenette, Bryan D and Lindsey A. Bruckerhoff and Tobler, Michael and K. B. Gido}, editor = {Clark, Timothy} }