Optimisation as a process for understanding and managing river ecosystems

Barbour, Emily; Holz, Linda; Kuczera, George; Pollino, Carmel; Jakeman, Anthony J.; Loucks, Daniel P.

doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2016.04.029

Cited by 24 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 123 publications

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“…This tight connection between fish and human society underscores the need for formal trade-off analysis between hydropower and food systems, including fish and rice. This task is achievable given the articulation of an ecological objective function for the Mekong, as described above, and the breadth of approaches in multi-objective optimization already available (24,(61)(62)(63).…”

Section: Model Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Designing river flows to improve food security futures in the Lower Mekong Basin

Sabo

Ruhí

Holtgrieve

et al. 2017

Science

201

167

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Rivers provide unrivaled opportunity for clean energy via hydropower, but little is known about the potential impact of dam-building on the food security these rivers provide. In tropical rivers, rainfall drives a periodic flood pulse fueling fish production and delivering nutrition to more than 150 million people worldwide. Hydropower will modulate this flood pulse, thereby threatening food security. We identified variance components of the Mekong River flood pulse that predict yield in one of the largest freshwater fisheries in the world. We used these variance components to design an algorithm for a managed hydrograph to explore future yields. This algorithm mimics attributes of discharge variance that drive fishery yield: prolonged low flows followed by a short flood pulse. Designed flows increased yield by a factor of 3.7 relative to historical hydrology. Managing desired components of discharge variance will lead to greater efficiency in the Lower Mekong Basin food system.

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Section: Model Structurementioning

confidence: 99%

Designing river flows to improve food security futures in the Lower Mekong Basin

Sabo

Ruhí

Holtgrieve

et al. 2017

Science

201

167

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Impact assessment, mitigation strategies and cost‐benefit trade‐offs must be inferred from hypothesised scenarios and data extrapolation (Chen & Olden, ; Poff et al, ; Sabo et al, ). Yet with more than half the world's large rivers already affected by dams (Nilsson, Reidy, Dynesius, & Revenga, ), a holistic framework for ecological assessment remains wanting (Barbour et al, ; Halls & Moyle, ; Jager & Smith, ; Poff & Zimmerman, ; Williams, ). This study considers the relevance of the trophic upsurge hypothesis as an analytical framework for the conservation management of fish biodiversity in regulated rivers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of a hydroelectric dam on Neotropical fish communities: A spatio‐temporal analysis of the Trophic Upsurge Hypothesis

Monaghan

Agostinho

Pelicice

et al. 2019

Ecology of Freshwater Fish

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We employed the trophic upsurge hypothesis as an analytical framework to describe the response of Neotropical fish communities to terrestrial inundation associated with river damming. Data were collected for the impact assessment of the Peixe Angical Dam, Tocantins River, Brazil. Monthly surveys were conducted at nine sites (seven upstream, two downstream) from 15 months before to 20 months after dam closure and a follow‐up survey 60–83 months after closure. Fish responses differed in timing and magnitude across sites. In the new reservoir, populations peaked 8–13 months after flooding, demonstrating increases in richness (84 ± 52%), biomass (329 ± 266%) and abundance (681 ± 348%) with the maxima for richness and abundance tending to precede biomass maxima. Populations of all families increased but were greatest for Engraulidae, Hemiodontidae, Serrasalmidae and Characidae, and lower for the benthic catfish: Sciaenidae, Dorididae, Pimelodidae. Downstream populations peaked 5–12 months after closure or showed consistent decline. Five years after dam‐closure richness and abundance were lower compared to predam levels, with populations at all sites demonstrating an ongoing decline. Reservoir creation triggers reproductive recruitment and otherwise pools spatially disparate populations from across the flooded valley. If the rise in richness is largely explained by the increased catchability of species otherwise present prior to flooding, it may be more appropriate to estimate species loss with reference to upsurge data. As peak biomass coincides with declining richness, modelling fisheries production from annually aggregated data may risk overestimating the potential for sustainable harvests. Upsurge–response curves can help identify the timing of critical ecological thresholds for flood‐managed fisheries.

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“…One class of environmental flows studies that is explicitly geared toward decision-support involves optimization, by which pre-defined mathematical rules are applied to identify an "optimal" solution to meet an ecological objective [17,43]. Unfortunately, optimization approaches commonly fall short of evaluating ecological responses to hydrologic alteration (e.g., [44,45]) and instead present results only in terms of flow indices, which are implicitly assumed to be acceptable surrogates for ecological outcomes [17].…”

Section: Needs and Challenges Of Decision-support Systems For Water-rmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ideally, ecological predictions should be stratified into ecologically meaningful groupings (e.g., taxonomic, functional, or habitat-based) to allow managers to evaluate multiple, and possibly competing, conservation priorities. Aggregated metrics of "ecosystem health" are somewhat vague and subjective [43], but may be useful in some cases to summarize complex ecological information for decision makers. Finally, end-users of the decision-support system must be engaged as primary stakeholders, rather than simply as recipients of the final model, and should be able to implement the DSS without complicated or expensive software development [19,29,51].…”

Section: Toward a Useful And Ecologically Relevant Decision-support Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Putting Flow–Ecology Relationships into Practice: A Decision-Support System to Assess Fish Community Response to Water-Management Scenarios

Cartwright

Caldwell

Nebiker

et al. 2017

Water

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This paper presents a conceptual framework to operationalize flow-ecology relationships into decision-support systems of practical use to water-resource managers, who are commonly tasked with balancing multiple competing socioeconomic and environmental priorities. We illustrate this framework with a case study, whereby fish community responses to various water-management scenarios were predicted in a partially regulated river system at a local watershed scale. This case study simulates management scenarios based on interactive effects of dam operation protocols, withdrawals for municipal water supply, effluent discharges from wastewater treatment, and inter-basin water transfers. Modeled streamflow was integrated with flow-ecology relationships relating hydrologic departure from reference conditions to fish species richness, stratified by trophic, reproductive, and habitat characteristics. Adding a hypothetical new water-withdrawal site was predicted to increase the frequency of low-flow conditions with adverse effects for several fish groups. Imposition of new reservoir release requirements was predicted to enhance flow and fish species richness immediately downstream of the reservoir, but these effects were dissipated further downstream. The framework presented here can be used to translate flow-ecology relationships into evidence-based management by developing decision-support systems for conservation of riverine biodiversity while optimizing water availability for human use.

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Optimisation as a process for understanding and managing river ecosystems

Cited by 24 publications

References 123 publications

Designing river flows to improve food security futures in the Lower Mekong Basin

Designing river flows to improve food security futures in the Lower Mekong Basin

The impact of a hydroelectric dam on Neotropical fish communities: A spatio‐temporal analysis of the Trophic Upsurge Hypothesis

Putting Flow–Ecology Relationships into Practice: A Decision-Support System to Assess Fish Community Response to Water-Management Scenarios

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