High‐resolution data are improving our ability to resolve temporal patterns and controls on river productivity, but we still know little about the emergent patterns of primary production at river‐network scales. Here, we estimate daily and annual river‐network gross primary production (GPP) by applying characteristic temporal patterns of GPP (i.e., regimes) representing distinct river functional types to simulated river networks. A defined envelope of possible productivity regimes emerges at the network‐scale, but the amount and timing of network GPP can vary widely within this range depending on watershed size, productivity in larger rivers, and reach‐scale variation in light within headwater streams. Larger rivers become more influential on network‐scale GPP as watershed size increases, but small streams with relatively low productivity disproportionately influence network GPP due to their large collective surface area. Our initial predictions of network‐scale productivity provide mechanistic understanding of the factors that shape aquatic ecosystem function at broad scales.
Emergent productivity regimes of river networks
L. Koenig,A. Helton,P. Savoy,E. Bertuzzo,J. Heffernan,R. Hall,E. Bernhardt
Published 2019 in Limnology and Oceanography Letters
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- Publication year
2019
- Venue
Limnology and Oceanography Letters
- Publication date
2019-08-07
- Fields of study
Environmental Science
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