Linking Fire, Food Webs, and Fish in Stream Ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: As wildfire regimes shift, resource managers are concerned about potential threats to aquatic ecosystems and the species they support, especially fishes. However, predicting fish responses can be challenging because wildfires affect aquatic ecosystems via multiple pathways. Application of whole-ecosystem approaches, such as food web modeling, can act as heuristic tools that offer valuable insights that account for these different mechanisms. We applied a dynamic food web simulation model that mechanistically linked stream trophic dynamics to the myriad effects that wildfires can have on aquatic and riparian ecosystems at a local stream reach-scale. We simulated how wildfires of different severity may influence short- (months to years) and long-term (years to decades) periphyton, aquatic in

SUBMITTER: Roon DA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11698785 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature