Quantifying the effects of groundwater and hydrology on trophic structure in desert riparian ecosystems

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Water and energy are essential ingredients of life and key commodities for humans and other living organisms that make up food webs. Curiously, although the role of energy in determining the inner workings of food webs has been thoroughly explored, water has been mostly ignored in food web ecology. The goal of this project is to fill this critical research gap by working to understand how the balance between supply and demand of energy and water affects patterns of abundance and biodiversity in terrestrial food webs. The research will involve a combination of large scale field experiments, stable isotopic tracers, and measurements of the metabolism and water use of individual animals. The research will be conducted in the forest ecosystem neighboring the San Pedro River, one of the last free flowing and perennial rivers in the Desert Southwest (USA). Arid lands occupy 1/3 of the Earth's terrestrial surface and drought is prevalent even in mesic and humid biomes. Thus, results from this project should provide general guidance for conservation planners about how changes in local energy and water balance associated with climate change will alter biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems. The research will involve K-12 outreach and education to enhance science curricula in schools in rural areas. This will be accomplished through a novel collaboration between graduate students and K-12 teachers as well as a web-based monitoring of river flows on the San Pedro River.