Data from: Stream fish community dynamics: a critical synthesis

Ecologists have long struggled to understand community dynamics. In this
groundbreaking book, leading fish ecologists William Matthews and Edie
Marsh-Matthews apply long-term studies of stream fish communities to
several enduring questions. This critical synthesis reaches to the heart
of ecological theory, testing concepts against the four decades of data
the authors have collected from numerous warm-water stream fish
communities in the central and eastern United States. Stream Fish
Community Dynamics draws together the work of a single research team to
provide fresh analyses of the short- and long-term dynamics of numerous
streams, each with multiple sampling sites. Conducting repeated surveys of
fish communities at temporal scales from months to decades, the authors’
research findings will fascinate anyone searching for a deeper
understanding of community ecology. The study sites covered by this book
range from small headwater creeks to large prairie rivers in Oklahoma and
from Ozark and Ouachita mountain streams in Arkansas to the upland Roanoke
River in Virginia. The book includes• A comparison of all global and local
communities with respect to community composition at the species and
family level, emergent community properties, and the relationship between
those emergent properties and the environments of the study sites•
Analyses of traits of individual species that are important to their
distribution or success in harsh environments• A review of evidence for
the importance of interactions—including competition and predation—in
community dynamics of stream fishes• An assessment of disturbance effects
in fish community dynamics• New analysis of the short- and long-term
dynamics of variation in stream fish communities, illustrating the
applicability and importance of the "loose equilibrium concept"•
New analyses and comparisons of spatiotemporal variation in community
dynamics and beta diversity partitioning• An overview of the effects of
fish in ecosystems in the central and eastern United States The book ends
with a summary chapter that places the authors' findings in broader
contexts and describes how the "loose equilibrium concept"—which
may be the most appropriate default assumption for dynamics of stream
fishes in the changing climate of the future—applies to many kinds of
stream fish communities.