9417225 Lowe This award partially supports the travel expenses for Dr. Rex L. Lowe and a graduate student from the Department of Biological Sciences at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, to conduct cooperative research with Barry J. F. Biggs, Ecosystems Scientist with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, located in Christchurch, New Zealand, over a two year period. The research will focus on mechanisms that regulate spatial and temporal differences in the structure of periphyton communities in stream ecosystems. Disturbance, as used in ecological studies, denotes an event causing disruption in an ecosystem, community, or population structure and changes resources, substrate availability, or the physical environment. The ability of a community to resist the effects of a disturbance is referred to as resistance and the ability of a community to recover to some predetermined state is termed resilience. This study will examine resistance and resilience factors regulating benthic algae communities in twelve New Zealand South Island streams, six on the west coast (high disturbance) and six on the east coast (low disturbance). The laboratory-based experiments will be conducted at the University of Michigan Biological Station Stream Research Facility which provides numerous replicated artificial stream channels. The laboratory experiments are designed to examine variables which appear to have a strong regulatory influence in the natural New Zealand streams. Most of the New Zealand streams are fully protected (within the New Zealand National Parks and Reserves System), and provide a unique natural outdoor stream environment where one can investigate streams with similar or contrasting physical, chemical and biological traits. Support for the visit by Mr. Biggs to the University of Michigan facility is provided by the New Zealand Ministry of Research, Science and Technology under the U.S.- New Zealand Cooperative Science Progra m.
