The effects of climate change and introduced species on tropical island streams
| dc.contributor.author | Frauendorf, Therese | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | El-Sabaawi, Rana | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2019-08-09T17:22:57Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2019-08-09T17:22:57Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2019 | en_US |
| dc.date.issued | 2020-08-01 | |
| dc.degree.department | Department of Biology | en_US |
| dc.degree.level | Doctor of Philosophy Ph.D. | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Climate change and introduced species are among the top five threats to freshwater systems face. Tropical regions are considered to be especially sensitive to the effects of climate change, while island systems are more susceptible to species introductions. Climate-driven changes in rainfall are predicted to decrease streamflow and increase flash flooding in many tropical streams. In addition, guppies (Poecilia reticulata), an invasive fish, have been introduced to many tropical freshwater ecosystems, either intentionally for mosquito population control, or accidentally because of the aquarium trade. This dissertation examines the effects of climate-driven change in rainfall and introduced guppies on stream structure (resource and invertebrate biomass and composition) and function (nutrient recycling) in Trinidad and Hawaii. In the first data chapter we used a time series to examine how nutrient recycling of guppies changes in the first 6 years after introduction to a new habitat and to examine drivers of these changes. We found that when guppy populations establish in a new environment, they show considerable variation in nutrient recycling through time. This resulted from changes in guppy density in the first two years of introductions, and changes in individual excretion in subsequent stages. In the following chapter we utilized a rainfall gradient that mimics forecasted, climate-driven changes in precipitation and resulting changes in streamflow to examine the effects of climate change on stream food resources and macroinvertebrates. We found that the drying of streams across the gradient was associated with a decrease in resource quality and a 35-fold decline in macroinvertebrate biomass. Invertebrate composition also switched to taxa with faster turnover rates. In the third data chapter we used this same space-for-time substitution approach to determine if climate-driven changes in stream structure also affected stream function. We showed that population nutrient recycling rates declined at the drier end of our rainfall gradient as a result of drops in population densities. We also found that under the current climate scenario, community excretion supplied up to 70% of the nutrient demand, which was ten-fold lower with projected climate changes in streamflow. Lastly, since freshwater ecosystems often face multiple human impacts, including climate change and invasive species, we wanted to understand how climate-driven changes in flow might alter the impact of introduced guppies on stream ecosystems. We selected several streams with guppies and several without guppies along the Hawaii rainfall gradient to examine if the effect of guppies changed with differences in streamflow. We found that the two stressors had synergistic effects on macroinvertebrate biomass and nutrient recycling rates. We concluded that climate change appeared to enhance effects of guppies, through direct and indirect effects. Overall, this dissertation shows that both climate change and species invasion can affect stream ecosystems at multiple levels of organization. This dissertation demonstrates that the effects of anthropogenic stressors are not static through time, and emphasizes the need and utility of using several methodological approaches when measuring the temporal effects of stressors. We also underline the significance of assessing multiple stressor interactions, as more than one stressor often impacts ecosystems. | en_US |
| dc.description.embargo | 2019-09-01 | |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | en_US |
| dc.identifier.bibliographicCitation | Frauendorf T.C., MacKenzie R.A., Tingley R.W., Frazier A.G., Riney M.H. & El‐ Sabaawi R.W. (2019). Evaluating ecosystem effects of climate change on tropical island streams using high spatial and temporal resolution sampling regimes. Global Change Biology 25, 1344–1357. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.14584 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1828/11028 | |
| dc.language | English | eng |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | en_US |
| dc.subject | Guppy | en_US |
| dc.subject | Nitrogen | en_US |
| dc.subject | Phosphorus | en_US |
| dc.subject | Size structure | en_US |
| dc.subject | Density | en_US |
| dc.subject | Trinidad | en_US |
| dc.subject | Hawaii | en_US |
| dc.subject | Invertebrates | en_US |
| dc.subject | Space-for-time substitution | en_US |
| dc.subject | Multiple Stressors | en_US |
| dc.subject | Streamflow | en_US |
| dc.subject | Precipitation gradient | en_US |
| dc.subject | Organic matter | en_US |
| dc.subject | Nutrient uptake | en_US |
| dc.subject | Egestion | en_US |
| dc.subject | Excretion | en_US |
| dc.subject | Climate change | en_US |
| dc.subject | Invasive species | en_US |
| dc.title | The effects of climate change and introduced species on tropical island streams | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |