The multiple roles of water - new paper

Ecosphere has just published a new concept paper, led by Ryan Sponseller, with myself and our graduate advisor Stuart Fisher.  The paper is titled 'On the multiple ecological roles of water in river networks.' It addresses how the diverse effects of water (as a resource, habitat, vector for material transport, and agent of disturbance) shape downstream change in drainage networks, and how the interactions among those roles vary within catchments and across biomes.  We contrast patterns in Sycamore Creek, AZ with prevailing models of how streams change as they get bigger, and argue that the interactions among drying, flooding, and changing connectivity are needed to explain how systems change. Part of the rationale for this is that many streams are likely to see increased drying stress as climate, land use, and water management change.  This paper emerged from the synthetic chapter of Ryan's dissertation, and we have been working on it off and on for the last six(!) years. So it's great to finally have it out.