Development of Functional Trait Measures for Assessing Stream Ecosystem State

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My long term objectives develop and apply novel environmental assessment approaches to establish mechanistic explanations of environmental impacts on rivers. Next, my program will examine functional changes to river ecosystems that occur as a result of shifts in ecological trait composition. Current taxonomically-based methods for diagnosing the cause of degraded river ecosystem conditions are problematic as they are poorly linked to functional measures. In contrast, ecological traits-based information has the potential to provide mechanistic linkages of biotic responses to specific environmental disturbances (e.g., sedimentation, nutrient enrichment). Traits-based approaches have the potential to produce consistent metrics for application across broad spatial scales and associate cause and effect when multiple environmental stressors have cumulative consequences on biological communities.