The prevalence of nonlinearity and detection of ecological breakpoints across a land use gradient in streams.

ABSTRACT: Human activities can alter aquatic ecosystems through the input of nutrients and carbon, but there is increasing evidence that these pressures induce nonlinear ecological responses. Nonlinear relationships can contain breakpoints where there is an unexpected change in an ecological response to an environmental driver, which may result in ecological regime shifts. We investigated the occurrence of nonlinearity and breakpoints in relationships between total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), total dissolved phosphorus (TDP), and total dissolved carbon (DOC) concentrations and ecological responses in streams with varying land uses. We calculated breakpoints using piecewise regression, two dimensional Kolmogorov-Smirnov (2DKS), and significant zero crossings (SiZer) methods. We found nonlinearity was c

SUBMITTER: D'Amario SC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6406005 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature