MSRA Webinar Series - Assessing the Potential of Human-Assisted Translocation in Biodiversity Recovery in Restored Streams feat. Ibrahim R. Fagbohun
MSRA is excited to continue our series of webinars featuring leading industry researchers and partners, as we strive to offer opportunities for discussion and promote advancement of the stream restoration science. Visit our website and social media channels for upcoming webinars.
Continuing Education Credits will be offered for the MSRA Webinar Series!
We hope you will join us:
When: Tuesday, December 9th
Time: 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Where: GoToWebinar
Following your registration, and prior to the event, you will receive a webinar link from GoToWebinar on the morning of the webinar which will give you access to the webinar.
Will you be attending?
Register Today! Registration will Close at 3pm the Day Before the Webinar.
EVENT DETAILS:
Cost: Free for members, $10 for non-members
Presentation Abstract: Despite its widespread practice in the United States, stream restoration does not often achieve its biological goal of improving stream biodiversity. Stream biodiversity measures are often measured using benthic macroinvertebrates, which have been shown to remain depauperate even after many years following significant restoration efforts. One compelling hypothesis is the limited dispersal range of most aquatic macroinvertebrates, which has been estimated to be between 0-5km. Another prevailing hypothesis is that persistent stressors in restored streams inhibit the survival and establishment of sensitive macroinvertebrate taxa.
To assess the feasibility of the hypothesis, we conducted a manipulative field experiment to investigate the survival of sensitive macroinvertebrate taxa in restored streams after translocation from reference streams with high macroinvertebrate diversity.
Our results showed that several sensitive macroinvertebrate taxa showed a high rate of survival in restored streams over a four-week period. This suggests that restored streams can provide hospitable habitats for sensitive macroinvertebrate taxa, at least in the short term, provided they are able to reach them. In addition, we assessed whether rock and leaf substrates perform similarly in terms of community composition and diversity during translocations. Both substrates showed similar composition and diversity, but leaf substrates showed greater abundance, suggesting that using leaf substrates would be important to accumulate a diverse and abundant community of sensitive macroinvertebrates for transplants from reference streams to restored streams.
Broadly, our study provides evidence of sensitive macroinvertebrate taxa survival in restored streams, suggesting that larger translocation efforts have the potential to aid macroinvertebrate biodiversity recovery in restored streams.
Presenter's Abstract: Coming Soon!
