Comment on “Does timber harvest influence the dynamics of marine-derived nutrients in Southeast Alaska streams?” 1 Original article by Levi et al. appears in Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 68 (8): 1316–1329 and is available at http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full/10.1139/f2011-067. Reply by Levi et al. appears in Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 69 : this issue, and is available at http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full/10.1139/f2012-106.

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
• Main Authors: Jackson, C. Rhett, Martin, Douglas J.
• Other Authors: Richardson, John
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 2012
• Subjects: Aquatic Science; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Prince of Wales Island; Alaska
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f2012-104; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/f2012-104; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/f2012-104

Levi et al. (2011, Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci. 68: 1316–1329) related nutrient concentrations before, during, and after spawning, as well as various measures of channel morphology, to levels of prior timber harvest in seven watersheds on Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska, USA. They assumed that single reaches of seven streams were otherwise similar and that other controls on channel morphology and nutrient dynamics could be ignored relative to the effects of prior timber harvest. In this commentary we show that the seven watersheds were not similar and that the sample set was too small to address geomorphic variability unrelated to timber harvest. Levi et al. failed to consider adequately the natural drivers of spatial and temporal variability in channel morphology and to consider stronger alternate hypotheses for observed channel conditions.