Incorporating social-ecological considerations into basin-wide responses to climate change in the Colorado River Basin

Bair, Lucas S.; Yackulic, Charles B.; Schmidt, John C.; Perry, Denielle M.; Kirchhoff, Christine; Chief, Karletta; Colombi, Benedict J.

doi:10.1016/j.cosust.2019.04.002

Cited by 21 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…9). Annual water releases from, and thus lake elevation within, Lake Powell are determined by water supply agreements that do not prioritize environmental impacts (Bair et al 2019). Water is drawn from a fixed penstock depth (except during HFEs) to minimize the loss of hydropower revenue, further limiting the potential to actively manage water quality.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in prey, turbidity, and competition reduce somatic growth and cause the collapse of a fish population

Korman

Yard

Dzul

et al. 2020

Ecological Monographs

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Somatic growth exerts strong control on patterns in the abundance of animal populations via effects on maturation, fecundity, and survival rates of juveniles and adults. In this paper, we quantify abiotic and biotic drivers of rainbow trout growth in the Colorado River, Arizona, USA, and the resulting impact on spatial and temporal variation in abundance. Inferences are based on ~10,000 observations of individual growth rates obtained through an intensive mark–recapture effort conducted over 5 yrs (2012–2016) in a 130‐km long study segment downstream of Glen Canyon Dam. Prey availability, turbidity‐driven feeding efficiency, and intraspecific competition were the dominant drivers of rainbow trout growth. Discharge, water temperature, and solar insulation were also evaluated but had a smaller influence. Mixed‐effect models explained 79–82% of the variability in observed growth rates, with fixed covariate effects explaining 79–87% of the total variation in growth parameters across five reaches and 18 quarterly sampling intervals. Reductions in growth owing in part to a phosphorous‐driven decline in prey availability, led to a substantive loss in mass and poor fish condition. This in turn lowered survival rates and delayed maturation, which led to a rapid decline in abundance and later recruitments. Reductions in feeding efficiency, due to episodic inputs of fine sediment from tributaries, and warmer water temperatures, contributed to reduced growth in downstream reaches, which led to more severe declines in abundance. Somatic growth rates increased following the population collapse due to reduced competition, and in the absence of substantive increases in prey availability. Our study elucidates important linkages between abiotic and biotic factors, somatic growth, and vital rates, and demonstrates how variation in somatic growth influences temporal and spatial patterns in abundance.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in prey, turbidity, and competition reduce somatic growth and cause the collapse of a fish population

Korman

Yard

Dzul

et al. 2020

Ecological Monographs

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“…Reservoir operations that govern water storage and its release downstream are typically determined by large‐scale water‐supply policy that rarely considers ecological impacts to the river segments between reservoirs (Bair et al 2019). River regulation has fragmented rivers on a global scale, altered natural flow regimes, disrupted sediment and organic material flux, severed long‐distance fish migrations, and created thermal discontinuities that profoundly influence aquatic communities (Ward and Stanford 1983, Schmidt and Wilcock 2008, Poff and Zimmerman 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water storage decisions will determine the distribution and persistence of imperiled river fishes

Dibble

Yackulic

Kennedy

et al. 2021

Ecological Applications

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Managing the world’s freshwater supply to meet societal and environmental needs in a changing climate is one of the biggest challenges for the 21st century. Dams provide water security; however, the allocation of dwindling water supply among reservoirs could exacerbate or ameliorate the effects of climate change on aquatic communities. Here, we show that the relative sensitivity of river thermal regimes to direct impacts of climate change and societal decisions concerning water storage vary substantially throughout a river basin. In the absence of interspecific interactions, future Colorado River temperatures would appear to benefit both endemic and nonnative fish species. However, endemic species are already declining or extirpated in locations where their ranges overlap with warmwater nonnatives and changes in water storage may lead to warming in some of the coolest portions of the river basin, facilitating further nonnative expansion. Integrating environmental considerations into ongoing water storage negotiations may lead to better resource outcomes than mitigating nonnative species impacts after the fact.

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“…O outro caso é a bacia do Rio Colorado que abastece cerca de 40 milhões de pessoas em três estados dos Estados Unidos e no México, como um total de 22 barragens ao longo do seu percurso. Nos últimos 20 anos, tem sido executado o Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program pelo Departamento do Interior dos Estados Unidos, em parceria com o U.S. Geological Survey, com o objetivo de implantar uma estrutura de monitoramento e gestão adaptativa dos recursos pesqueiros, com subsídios para a Etapa de Acompanhamento da AIA das usinas hidrelétricas implantadas na bacia (Bair et al, 2019). De acordo com os autores, as decisões têm sido compartilhadas entre 25 grupos de diferentes setores da sociedade, incluindo alterações no regime de vazão que garantam a distribuição de água para o consumo pela população, para a produção de energia pelas usinas hidrelétricas, para manutenção de estoques pesqueiros utilizados na pesca esportiva e para a recuperação de peixes que estejam ameaçados, como é o caso do Humpback chub.…”

Section: Perspectivas Para a Etapa De Acompanhamento De Aiaunclassified

Gestão Adaptativa na Etapa de Acompanhamento da Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental

et al. 2021

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RESUMO O emprego de abordagens baseadas em Gestão Adaptativa representa uma oportunidade para o aperfeiçoamento da Etapa de Acompanhamento da Avaliação de Impacto, considerando as afinidades conceituais que existem entre suas estruturas. Na prática, há casos que demonstram o aumento da capacidade adaptativa baseado em aprendizado experiencial, o que requer arranjos de governança que sejam capazes de garantir o efetivo envolvimento das diversas partes da sociedade no próprio processo de tomada de decisão. De toda forma, a Gestão Adaptativa é uma abordagem promissora, o que não pode significar o desrespeito aos princípios da precaução e da prevenção que fundamentam os processos de Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental, servindo de mero paliativo para situações cujos impactos ambientais poderiam ter sido previstos e evitados.

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Incorporating social-ecological considerations into basin-wide responses to climate change in the Colorado River Basin

Cited by 21 publications

References 35 publications

Changes in prey, turbidity, and competition reduce somatic growth and cause the collapse of a fish population

Changes in prey, turbidity, and competition reduce somatic growth and cause the collapse of a fish population

Water storage decisions will determine the distribution and persistence of imperiled river fishes

Gestão Adaptativa na Etapa de Acompanhamento da Avaliação de Impacto Ambiental

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