Global environmental changes have direct effects on aquatic ecosystems, as well as indirect effects through alterations of adjacent terrestrial ecosystem structure and functioning. For example, shifts in terrestrial vegetation communities resulting from global changes can affect the quantity and quality of water, organic matter, and nutrient inputs to aquatic ecosystems. The relative importance...

Mass loss from mountain glaciers contributes to sea-level rise and reduces freshwater availability in glacier-fed river basins, with negative effects on hydropower generation, agriculture and the health of aquatic ecosystems. In this study, we determine the volume of lower Peyto Glacier, Alberta, Canada, from ground-penetrating radar surveys in 2008–10, and compare our volume estimate with prev...

The tributaries of the Olifants River draining the Cedarberg Mountains in the Western Cape are well known for their diverse fauna of endemic freshwater fish. Aquatic ecosystems in the region have also been identified as being particularly important in terms of ecosystem conservation. Recent surveys of aquatic macroinvertebrates have indicated that the region is rich in Trichoptera, with a numbe...

Biodiversity is one of the most important characteristics of the aquatic ecosystem for maintaining its stability and resilience [1]. Aquatic macrophytes are macroscopic forms of aquatic vegetation, including macroalgae, mosses, ferns and angiosperms found in aquatic habitat. They have evolved from many diverse groups and often demonstrate extreme flexibility in structure and morphology in relat...

We present here the results of calibrating and validating a three-band model and, its special case, a two-band model, which use MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) reflectances in the red and near-infrared spectral regions for estimating chlorophyll-a (chl-a) concentration in inland, estuarine, and coastal turbid productive waters. During four data collection campaigns in 2008 and on...

GEOMORPHIC AND AQUATIC CONDITIONS INFLUENCING SALMONIDS AND STREAM CLASSIFICATION with application to ecosystem classification

781 Few of us may ever live on the sea or under it, but all of us are making increasing use of it either as a source of food and other materials, or as a dump. As our demands upon the ocean increase, so does our need to understand the ocean as an ecosystem. Basic to the understanding of any ecosystem is knowledge of its food web, through which energy and materials flow. (Pomeroy 1974, p. 499)