An Individual-Based Model for Evaluating the Effects of Hydrology on BioticStream Communities

摘要

The primary objective of this work is to develop a network-scale ecologicalmodel for use in evaluating the long-term hydrologic effect of landscape change andmanagement on aquatic communities. The specific component of work presentedhere describes the background and development of a fish habitat selection model thatincorporates the influence of connectivity on community development. The researchuses a spatially-explicit individual-based model (IBM) to analyze network dynamicsin stream ecosystems in terms of fish movement, mechanisms of fish communityassembly and sustainability, and fish community structure in response to outsidedriving influences. The primary input to this model is streamflow and hydrologicconnectivity related to watershed landscape characteristics. The result is a practicaltool that can easily incorporate ecological integrity into management decisions thataffect a system's hydrologic characteristics.