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Rights Statements InC/1.0 , Open Access
Journal article
Patterns of diversity, density, and biomass of ectothermic vertebrates in ten small streams along a North American river continuum
Northwest science., Vol.75(2), pp.168-175
2001
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/1047
Abstract
We sampled density, diversity, and biomass of fish and amphibians to test the hypothesis that vertebrate diversity in low- (second- and third-) order, low-elevation streams flowing into large, higher-order streams or rivers is greater than that in low-order headwater streams flowing into streams of the same order or one order higher. Also tested was the hypothesis that vertebrate biomass and density among streams were related to elevation, stream gradient, and drainage basin area. In ten second-order and third-order streams (2.2 to 5.0 m wetted width in summer) in the Pacific Northwest, USA, vertebrate diversity increased with decreasing elevation. Elevation and stream gradient accounted for 86% of the variation among streams in vertebrate diversity. In contrast, elevation, stream gradient or drainage basin area were not significantly related to either vertebrate density or biomass. The observed pattern of progressively greater vertebrate diversity downstream from the headwaters was consistent with the river continuum concept, but the concept must be modified slightly to account for the diversity in low-elevation, low-order streams being higher than in low-order headwater streams. From a management perspective, since similarly-sized low-order streams do not have the same species assemblages, it is necessary to protect small streams through a range of elevations if the full complement of species is to be protected
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Details
- Title
- Patterns of diversity, density, and biomass of ectothermic vertebrates in ten small streams along a North American river continuum
- Creators
- Brett B. Roper (Author)Dennis L. Scarnecchia (Author)
- Publication Details
- Northwest science., Vol.75(2), pp.168-175
- Academic Unit
- Northwest Science
- Publisher
- WSU Press
- Identifiers
- 99900501061801842
- Copyright
- In copyright ; openAccess ; http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ ; http://purl.org/eprint/accessRights/OpenAccess
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article