Aquatic Systems Branch scientists analyze rings of riparian trees relating tree growth and establishment to historical flow. We then use the tree rings to reconstruct the flow in past centuries. Flow reconstructions discover the frequency and magnitude of past droughts and floods—information that is essential for management of rivers and water supplies. We also use downscaled climate...
Riparian ecologists at the Fort Collins Science Center study interactions among flow, channel change, and vegetation along rivers across the western United States and worldwide. Our work focuses on issues relevant to the management of water and public lands, including dam operation, climate change, invasive species, and ecological restoration. Investigations take place on a range of scales. ...
The interdisciplinary team of hydroscape ecology develops and advances a broad, landscape-scale perspective of ecological flows for aquatic ecosystems. A hydrologic landscape, hydroscape, is an environmental theater, where hydrologic, geomorphologic, biogeochemical, biological, and anthropogenic processes play to provide ecological services to the society. The construction of water control...
It is a difficult task to determine the desirable environmental targets for aquatic resource managers, because of a myriad of physical, hydrological, and biological processes affecting aquatic ecosystems and hydroscapes, the complexity of interactions and the multifaceted information, and substantial levels of uncertainty. Computer-based Decision Support Systems (DSS) can help integrate and...
Most aquatic insects live in fresh water as larvae and move to land as flying adults to complete their life cycle. Although often ignored, the emergence of adults can transfer the effects of contamination from aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems as the adults are eaten by predators such as spiders, birds, and bats.
Scientists in the Aquatic Systems Branch have been studying the impacts of dams on riverscapes for more than two decades. Our scientists have written many reports on the effects of dams on recruitment of bottomland pioneer trees, such as cottonwood, along the Upper Missouri River and the Bill Williams River, and the effects of dams on channel geometry and vegetation throughout the Great Plains...
The Aquatic Systems Branch at the Fort Collins Science Center is a group of scientists dedicated to advancing interdisciplinary science and providing science support to solve water-related environmental issues. Natural resource managers have an increasing need for scientific information and stakeholders face enormous challenges of increasing and...
Dong, Quan; Walters, Katie D.
The human dimensions of biotic invasion are generally poorly understood, even among the most familiar invasive species. Kudzu (Pueraria montana (Lour.) Merr.) is a prominent invasive plant and an example of quasi-wild species, which has experienced repeated introduction, cultivation, and escape back to the wild. Here, we review a large body...
Li, Z.; Dong, Q.; Albright, Thomas P.; Guo, Q. 1. A quantile regression model for counts of breeding Cape Sable seaside sparrows Ammodramus maritimus mirabilis (L.) as a function of water depth and previous year abundance was developed based on extensive surveys, 1992-2005, in the Florida Everglades. The quantile count model extends linear quantile regression methods to discrete response...
Cade, B.S.; Dong, Q. Periphyton is a key component of the Everglades ecosystems. It is a major primary producer, providing food and habitat for a variety of organisms, contributing material to the surface soil, and regulating water chemistry. Periphyton is sensitive to the phosphorus (P) supply and P enrichment has caused dramatic changes in the native Everglades...
Dong, Quan; McCormick, Paul V.; Sklar, Fred H.; DeAngelis, Donald L. Review info: Simulating ecological and evolutionary systems in c. By Will Wilson, 2000. ISBN: 978-0521776585, 320 pp.
DeAngelis, Donald L. We used an individual-based modeling approach to study the consequences of cannibalism and competition for food in a freshwater fish population. We simulated the daily foraging, growth, and survival of the age-0 fish and older juvenile individuals of a sample population to reconstruct patterns of density dependence in the age-0 fish during the...
Dong, Q.; DeAngelis, D.L.