Riverscapes: Synoptic, High-Resolution Mapping and Modeling of Biophysical Attributes and Interactions in Stream Environments

New techniques are emerging that allow high-resolution spatial and temporal mapping, modeling, and monitoring of biophysical attributes across large extents of stream networks and floodplains. Many key stream microhabitat physical features, such as water depth, flow velocity and volume, bed shear stress, temperature and substrate size, can now be examined at meter and sub-meter scales with remote sensing technologies and numerical models. Some variables (e.g. temperature and flow) can also be monitored using networks of data loggers with daily to hourly temporal resolution to complement temporally limited but spatially extensive remotely sensed imagery. Commensurate with these advances, biological sampling and modeling techniques such as otolith microchemistry analysis, massive PIT tagging campaigns, and radio-telemetry are yielding higher resolution information about fish movements, growth, and survival. Integrating these expansive new biophysical databases may support innovative analyses that could materially advance our understanding of river ecosystems and population dynamics and lead to improved management, channel restoration efforts, or responses to threats posed by climate change. This symposium encourages contributions that exploit new remote sensing or biological techniques to examine stream and river systems in greater detail. Papers focused on integrating this information across spatial and temporal scales and biophysical boundaries are especially encouraged.