Event Description Alain Maasri, PhD, assistant research professor, BEES, Academy of Natural Sciences
The need to understand and manage ecosystems at larger
“macrosystem” levels is becoming increasingly crucial with climate change and
global challenges facing our freshwater ecosystems. Macrosystem management
requires an understanding of how different levels of spatial complexity (reach
to valley scale) and biotic organization (populations to ecosystems) affect the
functioning of ecological systems. In such a context, the MACRO project
examines rivers of the two largest temperate steppe biomes of the world: the
North American Great Plains and the Euro-Asian Steppes (Mongolian steppes).
Scientists from the USA and Mongolia are examining the structure and
functioning of these rivers in a variety of hydrogeomorphic areas, such as
constricted, meandering, and braided channel sections. Despite their similarity
in biomes, the river macrosystems of the Great Plains and the Mongolian steppes
vary substantially in fauna, flora, and community through ecosystem
functioning. For example, most rivers in the USA contain dams and many exotic
fauna have been introduced, while the vast majority of Mongolian rivers contain
no dams and their aquatic fauna is almost exclusively native.
During this seminar, I will 1) give a brief review of the
main tenets of macrosystem ecology, 2) discuss the MACRO rivers project, it’s
objectives, and the different research activities developed within this
project, and 3) present the first results on stream macroinvertebrate
communities.
For more information please follow this link here: http://www.macrorivers.org/
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