Precipitation and temperature drive continental-scale patterns in stream invertebrate production
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Secondary production, the growth of new heterotrophic biomass, is a key process in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems that has been carefully measured in many flowing water ecosystems. We combine structural equation modeling with the first worldwide dataset on annual secondary production of stream invertebrate communities to reveal core pathways linking air temperature and precipitation to secondary production. In the United States, where the most extensive set of secondary production estimates and covariate data were available, we show that precipitation-mediated, low-stream flow events have a strong negative effect on secondary production. At larger scales (United States, Europe, Central America, and Pacific), we demonstrate the significance of a positive two-step pathway from air to water temperature to increasing secondary production. Our results provide insights into the potential effects of climate change on secondary production and demonstrate a modeling framework that can be applied across ecosystems.
Date Issued
2019-04-17
Online Publication Date
2019-05-28T14:18:11Z
Date Acceptance
2019-02-27
ISSN
2375-2548
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Start Page
eaav2348
End Page
eaav2348
Journal / Book Title
Science Advances
Volume
5
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© 2019 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.
Sponsor
Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31001582
aav2348
Grant Number
NE/M020843/1
Publication Status
Published
Country
United States