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Rogers Kevin H. and others Centre for Water in the Environment, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. Abstract: To understand the behaviour and management of rivers as ecosystems requires a holistic, interdisciplinary approach that simultaneously considers their physical, chemical and biological components. However, interdisciplinary research is fraught with many problems including different approaches and conceptual tools, and hence disciplinary paradigms lose their usefulness in the interdisciplinary arena. Conceptual frameworks are useful tools to order phenomena and material, thereby revealing patterns and processes; in successful interdisciplinary river science they enable the joining of two or more areas of understanding into a single conceptual-empirical structure. A framework for the interdisciplinary study of river ecosystems is presented in this paper. The framework includes: the recognition of parallel subsystem hierarchies for geomorphology, hydrology and ecology and the different organisational elements and levels of each discipline and the assignment of spatial and temporal scales for each level of organization for the different subsystem hierarchies whereby different subsystem parts can be distinguished by different frequencies of occurrence and/or rates of change. Integration of the different subsystems, within the context of a particular study, is represented by flow chain model that provides the basis for describing interactions within and between the different subsystem hierarchies. Flow chain models describe process interactions that can change an ecosystem from one state (a template) of biophysical heterogeneity to another (a product). Application of the framework concepts requires a detailed description of the relevant organizational levels that characterise the different subsystems of the river ecosystem in the context of the problem being addressed. This is followed by the identification of appropriate scales and variables within the different organizational levels. Then the interactions with the products of template/agent of change/controller interactions that may account for any feedback influences are described. A series of examples are provided to illustrate the use of the framework in various interdisciplinary settings. |
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