Food Web Models for Stream Ecosystems

Ecohydrological modeling of food webs can be a useful tool in stream/river health assessment, restoration, and management by providing insight into the long-term dynamics of biota. Conventional food web models are mostly limited to lake or marine ecosystems. In contrast to these models, stream ecosystem models need to capture the response associated with shorter residence times as well as the impacts of natural (hydrology, geomorphology, etc.) and anthropogenic (building dams and reservoirs, industrial pollution, etc.) drivers. Further, the benthic and non-benthic zones of streams/rivers have different physical, chemical and biological compositions. To investigate hydrologic drivers, along with other environmental and geomorphologic constraints, dimensional and non-dimensional food web models have been developed to evaluate ecosystem dynamics of the benthic and non-benthic zones of streams and rivers. Insights gained from these applications can be used to critique different food web modeling approaches and recommend an appropriate model for a given stream ecosystem.