Flow-ecology relationships are spatially structured and differ among flow regimes

1. In streams, hydrology is a predominant driver of ecological structure and function. Providing adequate flows to support aquatic life, or environmental flows, is therefore a top management priority in stream systems. 2. Flow regime classification is a widely accepted approach for establishing environmental flow guidelines. However, it is surprisingly difficult to quantify relationships between hydrology and ecology (flow-ecology relationships) while describing how these relationships vary across classified flow regimes. Developing such relationships is complicated by several sources of spatial bias, such as autocorrelation due to spatial design, flow regime classification, and other environmental or ecological sources of spatial bias. 3. We used mixed moving-average spatial stream network models to develop flow-ecology relationships across classified flow regimes and to assess spatial patterns of these relationships. We compared relationships between fish traits and life-history stra...