Communities at the extreme: Aquatic food webs in desert landscapes.

ABSTRACT: Studying food webs across contrasting abiotic conditions is an important tool in understanding how environmental variability impacts community structure and ecosystem dynamics. The study of extreme environments provides insight into community-wide level responses to environmental pressures with relevance to the future management of aquatic ecosystems. In the western Lake Eyre Basin of arid Australia, there are two characteristic and contrasting aquatic habitats: springs and rivers. Permanent isolated Great Artesian Basin springs represent hydrologically persistent environments in an arid desert landscape. In contrast, hydrologically variable river waterholes are ephemeral in space and time. We comprehensively sampled aquatic assemblages in contrasting ecosystem types to assess patterns in

SUBMITTER: Moran NP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6802011 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature