Aquatic Biodiversity

Dr. Bryan L. Brown is Associate Professor of Aquatic Ecology at Virginia Tech. He obtained his MS in Biology at Appalachian State University and his PhD in Integrative Biology at the University of Texas. He brings more than 20 years of experience in aquatic community ecology. Dr. Brown’s research interests include keystone mutualisms in streams, habitat heterogeneity and community stability, community assembly, and the effects of perturbations on aquatic communities. He is Associate Editor of several notable journals, including Ecosphere (ESA), Oecologia (Springer), and Freshwater Science (University of Chicago Press). Dr. Christopher M. Swan is Professor in the Department of Geography & Environmental Systems at the University of Maryland. He obtained his MS in Zoology and PhD in Biology at the University of Maryland and brings more than 20 years of experience to the project. Dr. Swan’s research interests include lotic biodiversity, multiscale diversity in built ecosystems, community assembly, and stream restoration. He has co-authored two books, including The Ecology of Plant Litter Decomposition in Stream Ecosystems (Springer) and Science for the Sustainable City (Yale University Press).

• 1. Metacommunity ecology in aquatic systems2. The importance of spatial structure in lotic systems3. Streams as dendritic systems4. Using network modeling to quantify population and community dynamics in dendritic stream networks5. Importance of dispersal in lotic systems6. The physical study of dispersal: fish7. Microbial biodiversity in river networks8. Experiments using microcosm systems9. Field experiments in lotic systems10. A network approach to stream drying11. Metacommunity approaches to invasive species in aquatic systems12. Metacommunity approaches to urban aquatic ecosystems13. Applying metacommunity-based biomonitoring metrics on large spatial scales14. Effects of spatial structure on functioning in streams15. Summary and future directions