Ecological Dominant Discharge: Developing a New Concept in Stream Ecosystem Studies

生态优势流量：发展河流生态系统研究的新概念河流流量是河流生态系统的主要影响因素，人类通过灌溉、大坝运行和气候变化对流量进行了实质性的调整。众所周知，这些变化会影响河流的物理特性，但人们对它们的生态影响知之甚少。我们的目标是系统地分析河流生态系统过程如何随着流量的不同而变化，并将这些信息合成一个我们称为“生态主导流量”的单一指标，即负责控制给定地点大多数河流生态系统过程的流量。我们将通过研究纽约州北部阿迪朗达克公园的四条河流来研究这一概念(两条堤坝改造的河流，其中一条定期放水，两条天然的未经改造的河流)。这些河流具有一系列的物理参数(例如，流量的变化)和生态参数(例如，颗粒的传输等)。这项研究得出的信息将与受水流调节影响的河流的管理高度相关，并有助于指导潜在的河流恢复工作。流量调节的物理和生态影响正在得到更好的理解，但在过去很难将这些影响统一到一个单一的概念中，生态优势排放的概念可能会缓解这些问题。

Ecological Dominant Discharge: Developing a New Concept in Stream Ecosystem Studies River discharge is a primary influence on stream ecosystems, and discharge has been substantially modified by humans via irrigation, dam operation, and climate change. These changes are known to affect the physical properties of rivers, but their ecological impacts are poorly understood. Our goal is to systematically analyze how stream ecosystem processes vary with differences in discharge, and to synthesize this information into a single metric that we call the "Ecological Dominant Discharge," which is that discharge responsible for controlling the majority of stream ecosystem processes for a given site. We will investigate this concept by studying four rivers in the Adirondack Park of upstate New York (2 dam-modified rivers, one of which has regular releases of water and 2 natural, unmodified rivers). These rivers possess a range of both physical parameters (e.g., variations in discharge) and ecological parameters (e.g., transport of particulates, etc.). The information derived from this research will be highly relevant to the management of rivers impacted by flow regulation, and for guiding potential river restoration efforts. The physical and ecological impacts of flow regulation are becoming better understood, but unifying these impacts into a single concept has been difficult in the past, and the concept of ecological dominant discharge will potentially alleviate these problems.