With NSF funding, an educational documentary will be produced, capitalizing on the upcoming restoration of Fossil Creek, Arizona where a large hydropower dam will be decommissioned this December. The documentary, Cascading Consequences, speaks to the complex environmental issues that inform large restoration projects.
The intellectual merit of this project has four components. First, the documentary will integrate ecosystem ecology with geology by showing how changes in the fluvial geomorphology of the stream could affect decomposition and primary productivity. Second, the video will document the biological implications of prior water management by showing the ecological effects of the hydropower dam on stream ecosystems. Third, the video will show the consequences of progressive water resource management, incorporating ecosystem services. Fourth, the video will highlight how organisms, including humans, are interconnected in food webs, illustrating how management decisions ripple through food webs.
The broader impacts of this proposal have three components. First, the video will inform the general public television audience about the scientific rationale behind dam removals, and will objectively discuss both the positive and negative consequences of dam installation and decommissioning to aquatic ecosystems. Second, the video will provide a venue for university professors to use a case study to illustrate how basic research and research tools including stable isotopes, decomposition experiments, food web studies, and natural history surveys can be applied to management decisions in a real world scenario. Third, by providing accompanying educational materials for high school teachers, this project will reach a new generation of students preparing them to be leaders in ecosystem restoration, breaking down barriers between scientists, policy makers, and resource managers.
