Climate change is poised to alter mountain stream ecosystem processes via organismal phenological shifts.

ABSTRACT: Climate change is affecting the phenology of organisms and ecosystem processes across a wide range of environments. However, the links between organismal and ecosystem process change in complex communities remain uncertain. In snow-dominated watersheds, snowmelt in the spring and early summer, followed by a long low-flow period, characterizes the natural flow regime of streams and rivers. Here, we examined how earlier snowmelt will alter the phenology of mountain stream organisms and ecosystem processes via an outdoor mesocosm experiment in stream channels in the Eastern Sierra Nevada, California. The low-flow treatment, simulating a 3- to 6-wk earlier return to summer baseflow conditions projected under climate change scenarios in the region, increased water temperature and reduced biofil

SUBMITTER: Leathers K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10998557 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature