Aquatic Ecosystems

NYSWRI supports research and outreach collaboration across varied watershed management and policy objectives. A unifying theme of WRI’s collaboration is to increase long-term watershed resilience to extreme weather events and climate change. Ecosystems are dynamic systems and the water cycle is a major driver of change in ecosystem state. The water cycle controls seasonal dynamics such as the rate of vegetation growth, as well as extreme events such as flooding or landslides. Perturbation or disturbance events are normal occurrences in all ecosystems. Managing watersheds to increase system resiliency requires implementing techniques that make a watershed less susceptible to disturbance events or that promotes quick system recovery following a disturbance.