The Stream‐Catchment (StreamCat) Dataset: A Database of Watershed Metrics for the Conterminous United States

Hill, Ryan A.; Weber, Matt; Leibowitz, Scott G.; Olsen, Anthony R.; Thornbrugh, Darren J.

doi:10.1111/1752-1688.12372

Cited by 210 publications

(263 citation statements)

References 15 publications

(26 reference statements)

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“…For most conservation purposes, having that information at the resolution of local populations rather than individuals is sufficient, but even this remains a daunting task (Bennie et al 2014). Advances in remote sensing and better data from environmental monitoring programs, coupled with increasing availability of geospatial covariates (Wulder et al 2012, Hill et al 2016, will reduce but not eliminate this deficiency, so local field knowledge and judgement will remain important for intuiting model structure and assessing realism. Another challenge is that species occurrence databases aggregated from multiple sources may include false absences associated with nonrecording bias or inefficient sampling techniques.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Big biology meets microclimatology: defining thermal niches of ectotherms at landscape scales for conservation planning

Isaak

Wenger

Young

2017

Ecological Applications

119

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Temperature profoundly affects ecology, a fact ever more evident as the ability to measure thermal environments increases and global changes alter these environments. The spatial structure of thermalscapes is especially relevant to the distribution and abundance of ectothermic organisms, but the ability to describe biothermal relationships at extents and grains relevant to conservation planning has been limited by small or sparse data sets. Here, we combine a large occurrence database of >23 000 aquatic species surveys with stream microclimate scenarios supported by an equally large temperature database for a 149 000-km mountain stream network to describe thermal relationships for 14 fish and amphibian species. Species occurrence probabilities peaked across a wide range of temperatures (7.0-18.8°C) but distinct warm- or cold-edge distribution boundaries were apparent for all species and represented environments where populations may be most sensitive to thermal changes. Warm-edge boundary temperatures for a native species of conservation concern were used with geospatial data sets and a habitat occupancy model to highlight subsets of the network where conservation measures could benefit local populations by maintaining cool temperatures. Linking that strategic approach to local estimates of habitat impairment remains a key challenge but is also an opportunity to build relationships and develop synergies between the research, management, and regulatory communities. As with any data mining or species distribution modeling exercise, care is required in analysis and interpretation of results, but the use of large biological data sets with accurate microclimate scenarios can provide valuable information about the thermal ecology of many ectotherms and a spatially explicit way of guiding conservation investments.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Big biology meets microclimatology: defining thermal niches of ectotherms at landscape scales for conservation planning

Isaak

Wenger

Young

2017

Ecological Applications

119

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“…A2). We acquired GIS-derived predictor variables describing landscape and hydrographic characteristics for the 25 379 reaches from the StreamCat dataset (Hill et al 2016). We established 149 of the 153 stations on 12-29 stream reaches per watershed and distributed these stations approximately proportional to Strahler order frequencies within each watershed.…”

Section: Step A: Physiology Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme heat events and the vulnerability of endemic montane fishes to climate change

Troia

Giam

2019

Ecography

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Identifying how close species live to their physiological thermal maxima is essential to understand historical warm-edge elevational limits of montane faunas and forecast upslope shifts caused by future climate change. We used laboratory experiments to quantify the thermal tolerance and acclimation potential of four fishes (Notropis leuciodus, N. rubricroceus, Etheostoma rufilineatum, E. chlorobranchium) that are endemic to the southern Appalachian Mountains (USA), exhibit different historical elevational limits, and represent the two most species-rich families in the region. All-subsets selection of linear regression models using AIC c indicated that species, acclimation temperature, collection location and month, and the interaction between species and acclimation temperature were important predictors of thermal maxima (T max ), which ranged from 28.5 to 37.2°C. Next, we implemented water temperature models and stochastic weather generation to characterize the magnitude and frequency of extreme heat events (T extreme ) under historical and future climate scenarios across 25 379 stream reaches in the upper Tennessee River system. Lastly, we used environmental niche models to compare warming tolerances (acclimation-corrected T max minus T extreme ) between historically occupied versus unoccupied reaches. Historical warming tolerances, ranging from +2.2 to +10.9°C, increased from low to high elevation and were positive for all species, suggesting that T max does not drive warm-edge (low elevation) range limits. Future warming tolerances were lower (−1.2 to +9.3°C) but remained positive for all species under the direst warming scenario except for a small proportion of reaches historically occupied by E. rufilineatum, indicating that T max and acclimation potentials of southern Appalachian minnows and darters are adequate to survive future heat waves. We caution concluding that these species are invulnerable to 21st century warming because sublethal thermal physiology remains poorly understood. Integrating physiological sensitivity and warming exposure demonstrates a general and fine-grained approach to assess climate change vulnerability for freshwater organisms across physiographically diverse riverscapes.

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“…reaches based on the unique identifiers (McKay et al 2012;Hill et al 2016). This cost-effective effort resulted in a robust resource that is available now and in the future for various analyses to inform resource decision making at a broad range of spatial and temporal scales.…”

Section: Box 1 Migrating Data From Desk Drawers Into Databasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crowd‐Sourced Databases as Essential Elements for Forest Service Partnerships and Aquatic Resource Conservation

et al. 2018

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High‐quality information is needed for conservation and management of aquatic resources on lands administered by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). Information is ultimately derived from data, so the USFS maintains a series of databases that are used to describe the status and trends of aquatic habitats and biota. The databases are spatially explicit and are crowd‐sourced, meaning that distributed networks of professionals and technicians operating throughout the National Forest System collect stream and biological measurements, which are stored in central repositories. How those databases are developed is evolving and ranges from agency‐specific endeavors to collaborative projects that involve dozens of natural resource organizations and extensive user‐communities throughout the USA. The rate of data collection is accelerating and databases now often encompass millions of records, so proper archiving and maintenance by information technology specialists are necessary to maximize the utility of data for natural resource planning. Here, we describe several of the aquatic databases maintained by the USFS, applications arising from novel syntheses of databases, and the increasingly important roles databases play in collaborative partnerships and cost‐effective stewardship of aquatic resources.

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The Stream‐Catchment (StreamCat) Dataset: A Database of Watershed Metrics for the Conterminous United States

Cited by 210 publications

References 15 publications

Big biology meets microclimatology: defining thermal niches of ectotherms at landscape scales for conservation planning

Big biology meets microclimatology: defining thermal niches of ectotherms at landscape scales for conservation planning

Extreme heat events and the vulnerability of endemic montane fishes to climate change

Crowd‐Sourced Databases as Essential Elements for Forest Service Partnerships and Aquatic Resource Conservation

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