Multiple Stressors in Agricultural Streams: Ecological Impacts and Management Solutions

Dr. Jeremy ‘Jay’ Piggott (CER Visiting Research Scholar)

Agricultural stressors seldom operate in isolation and their impacts on freshwater ecosystems generally reflect an integrated response to multiple stressors. Due to the growing recognition that multiple stressors frequently interact in complex ways that cannot be predicted from knowledge of single stressor effects, empirical evaluation of multiple stressors is necessary for environmental managers to prioritize management strategies that define meaningful ‘thresholds of harm’ beyond which ecosystems should not be allowed to exceed. This seminar will present the ecological consequences and management implications of a range of studies investigating the interactive effects of multiple agricultural stressors on the structure and function of stream ecosystems in New Zealand.

About the speaker

Jay is a Research Fellow at the University of Otago (New Zealand) researching climate change and multiple stressor impacts on freshwater ecosystems for the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Cumulative Effects Programme. He was previously Director of Research & Enterprise Partnerships for the Association of Pacific Rim Universities and a Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore. His PhD studies at the University of Otago investigated the interactive effects of multiple anthropogenic stressors coupled with climate-change induced warming in freshwater ecosystems. He is an advisor on a number of industry and government partnered research grants investigating the effects of the nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide in freshwater ecosystems together with a team of multidisciplinary collaborators spanning three continents. Jay sits on the Executive Committee of the New Zealand Freshwater Sciences Society overseeing communication. Beyond his research interest, Jay has been actively involved in environmental advocacy for the Asia-Pacific as a Regional Youth Advisor and Youth Envoy to the United Nations Environment Programme, as a founding member of the Pacific Youth Environment Network and as the inaugural Antarctic Youth Ambassador for the Sir Peter Blake Leadership Trust and Antarctica New Zealand. Jay's research and love of mountaineering, paragliding and scuba diving have taken him to some of the most remote and inhospitable corners of the planet spanning every continent and over 80 countries. At CER Jay is working with Prof. Nakano and Assoc. Prof. Okuda investigating the genetic connectivity of freshwater invertebrate species in tributaries of the Yasu River in response multiple stressors together with collaborators at the Ruhr University of Bochum (Germany).