Spatial identification of tributary impacts in river networks

Abstract

The ability to assess spatial patterns of ecological conditions in river networks has been confounded by difficulties of measuring and perceiving features that are essentially invisible to observers on land and to aircraft and satellites from above. The nature of flowing water, which is opaque or at best semi-transparent, makes it difficult to visualize fine-scale patterns in habitat and biota at close range, and the linear topology of river networks complicates the process of scaling up to detect coarse-scale patterns. This spatially incomplete perspective limits our understanding of lotic systems because the scaled character of biotic and abiotic patterns produces different results depending on the method of data collection.

Citation

Torgersen, Christian E.; Gresswell, Robert E.; Bateman, Douglas S.; Burnett, Kelly M. 2008. Spatial identification of tributary impacts in river networks. In: Rice, S.P.; Roy, A.G.; Rhoads, B.L., eds. River confluences, tributaries and the fluvial network. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.: 159-181. Ch. 9.