Ecological benefits and toxicological consequences of flooding in river ecosystems

洪水是一种自然事件，由于其对人类财产的负面影响，在极端情况下对人的生命造成负面影响，因此通常被公众视为有害的。但洪水也可以通过对生态系统服务的影响间接造福人类。这项研究的目的是确定洪水对生活在河流中的鱼类和其他动物的好处和后果。它将使用一个生态系统模型——阿尔伯塔落基山麓的一系列海狸池塘——和萨斯喀彻温河上一个大的、易受洪水侵袭的三角洲来检验一个假设，即河流的浅水淹没区比河流的自由流动部分具有更高的初级生产力，生产更多更大的鱼，拥有更长的食物链。这些好处预计将被潜在有毒微量元素的高浓度所抵消，这些微量元素是由洪水从土壤和腐烂的有机物中释放出来的。

Floods are natural events that are often perceived by the public as uniformly harmful because of their negative effects on human property and in extreme cases, human life. But floods can also indirectly benefit humans via their influence on ecosystem services. The goal of this research is to determine the benefits and consequences of flooding for fish and other animals that live in rivers. It will use a model ecosystem - a series of beaver ponds in the Rocky Mountain foothills of Alberta - and a large, flood-prone delta in the Saskatchewan River to test the hypothesis that shallow, flooded areas of the river have higher rates of primary productivity, produce more and larger fish and have longer food chains than free-flowing sections of the river. These benefits are expected to be offset by higher concentrations of potentially toxic trace elements that result from their liberation from soils and decaying organic matter by floodwaters.