Meeting Abstract
Terrestrial life is constrained by temperature and water availability, which vary across space and time. Permanent water sources (e.g., rivers or lakes) buffer environmental temperatures and allow terrestrial animals to access water in the absence of sufficient precipitation. Yet, biologists lack a thorough understanding of the independent and interactive effects of spatiotemporal variation in temperature and water availability on riparian communities. Therefore, we explored these dynamics in an insect community in a hot-summer Mediterranean climate. At our study site in Stockton, CA, total precipitation varied between 0 and 235 mm for the driest and wettest seasons, respectively, and mean ground temperature varied between 7°C and 34°C for the coolest and warmest study periods, respectively. In each season, we used 61 pitfall trap arrays along 10 transects perpendicular to the Calaveras River. At each trap location, we measured ground temperature hourly, as well as estimates of insect biodiversity, abundance, and biomass. Our results will provide new insight into the complex role of spatiotemporal variation in temperature and water availability in community dynamics, which is important given the prediction for warmer, drier climates in many global regions.
