Landscape Influences on Stream Habitats and Biological Assemblages

Preface

doi: https://doi.org/10.47886/9781888569766.fmatter

Viewing rivers in the context of their landscape settings is a relatively young and rapidly developing discipline. The linkages among landscape and associated physicochemical and biological characteristics of rivers have long been recognized. However, the development of conceptual frameworks and tools for measuring and synthesizing such linkages has only recently been fueled by growth in related fields, including landscape ecology and geographic information systems. We are at an important moment in the emergence of landscape-based river science. To facilitate communication among researchers, resource managers, and policy makers, Lizhu Wang and Bob Hughes began organizing a symposium on landscape effects on streams at the 2003 annual meeting of the American Fisheries Society (AFS). The AFS Water Quality Section agreed to sponsor both the symposium and this resulting book, Paul Seelbach agreed to coedit, and AFS agreed to publish the book. Twentyeight presentations were given in a special session at the 2004 AFS annual meeting in Madison, Wisconsin. From these, 26 acceptable manuscripts and five additional chapters were prepared within the following year, with the capable assistance of 80 peer reviewers, bringing the total to 31 chapters. Also, the USGS-Biological Resources Discipline, USGS-Forest & Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, and the Natural Resources Research Institute of the University of Minnesota-Duluth assisted with publication costs. And the USEPA guaranteed purchase of 50 books. We offer our sincere gratitude to the sponsors, peer reviewers, authors, and AFS copy editor—Debby Lehman—for bringing this book to fruition. We hope this collection of thoughts and experiences will help us to better see, understand, and manage rivers as landscape ecosystems.