How are changing temperature and precipitation impacting the availability of permanent water, and the kinds of species that can move across the landscape?
In Northern Arizona, warming temperatures (especially at lower elevations) are leading to streams that are ephemeral rather than permanent, and natural springs with decreasing flows. New projects in the lab are exploring the extent to which anthropogenic aquatic habitats can support diverse food webs across the landscape, and facilitate the dispersal of aquatic and terrestrial wildlife. Answering these questions begins with understanding dispersal, feeding, and tolerance traits of a range of aquatic invertebrates, and making use of high resolution satellite imagery to understand variation in habitat availability across space and time.
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