Reach‐Scale Comparison of Habitat and Mollusk Assemblages for Select Sites in the Clinch River with Regional Context

The Clinch River, in eastern United States, supports a diverse freshwater fauna including endangered mussels. Although mussel populations are stable in the Clinch's northeastern Tennessee segment, long-term declines have been documented upstream in Virginia. We analyzed water and sediment quality data collected by government agencies from the 1960s through 2013 in an effort to inform current management. The river was divided into sections considering data availability and major tributaries. We tested for spatial differences among river sections and for temporal trends, and compared measured values to potentially protective levels if available. Ammonia concentrations approaching and exceeding protective levels were recorded, most often during the 1970s and 1980s in upstream sections. Sediment metals occurred at levels potentially causing biological effects, mainly during the 1980s and 1990s. In the 2000s, water-column metals have been well below protective levels for general aquatic life. Dissolved solids (DS) increased in most river sections over the study period but mussel-specific protective levels are not known. Analysis of water pH, total N, and total P did not generate conservation concern. Enhanced monitoring for sediment metals, water-column metals, and ionic composition of DS; closer alignment of agency water monitoring practices in the two states; and research to determine biological effects of DS at current and anticipated levels can aid future conservation management.(KEY TERMS: rivers/streams; water quality; metals; nutrients; dissolved solids; freshwater mussels.) Price, Jennifer E.

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“…(), and Ostby et al . (), the river segments addressed by these studies are not aligned with our analysis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…The Clinch River of northeastern Tennessee and Virginia is a free‐flowing stream, with habitat features that are generally suitable for freshwater mussels (Ostby et al ., ). Major land uses within the watershed are forestry and agriculture (Zipper et al ., ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water and Sediment Quality in the Clinch River,Virginia andTennessee,USA, over Nearly Five Decades

Price

Zipper

Jones

et al. 2014

J American Water Resour Assoc

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“…Ostby et al . () sought to determine if the observed variations in mussel assemblages throughout the Clinch River reflect differences in physical habitat quality. This study was conducted in response to work in the southern Appalachians and elsewhere that suggests mussel assemblages are influenced by stream channel geomorphology.…”

Section: Overview Of Featured Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…None of the habitat metrics evaluated by Ostby et al . () were consistently correlated with patterns of mussel decline. However, they and other authors (Church, ; Krstolic, ) have found evidence that geomorphology may have played a more substantial role in structuring assemblages historically.…”

Section: Overview Of Featured Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…() and Ostby et al . () contributions to this collection. Furthermore, we use the term “impacted” to describe river reaches occupied by low‐quality assemblages, given historic accounts of dense and diverse mussel assemblages occurring throughout the Clinch River's Virginia extent (Ortmann, ; Stansbery, ; Ahlstedt, ), and the term “integrity” to describe an assemblage or community composition that appears as relatively unimpacted by human activities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Freshwater Mussel Population Status and Habitat Quality in the Clinch River, Virginia and Tennessee, USA: A Featured Collection

Zipper

Beaty

Johnson

et al. 2014

J American Water Resour Assoc

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The Clinch River of southwestern Virginia and northeastern Tennessee is arguably the most important river for freshwater mussel conservation in the United States. This featured collection presents investigations of mussel population status and habitat quality in the Clinch River. Analyses of historic water-and sediment-quality data suggest that water column ammonia and water column and sediment metals, including Cu and Zn, may have contributed historically to declining densities and extirpations of mussels in the river's Virginia sections. These studies also reveal increasing temporal trends for dissolved solids concentrations throughout much of the river's extent. Current mussel abundance patterns do not correspond spatially with physical habitat quality, but they do correspond with specific conductance, dissolved major ions, and water column metals, suggesting these and/or associated constituents as factors contributing to mussel declines. Mussels are sensitive to metals. Native mussels and hatchery-raised mussels held in cages in situ accumulated metals in their body tissues in river sections where mussels are declining. Organic compound and bed-sediment contaminant analyses did not reveal spatial correspondences with mussel status metrics, although potentially toxic levels were found. Collectively, these studies identify major ions and metals as water-and sediment-quality concerns for mussel conservation in the Clinch River.(KEY TERMS: aquatic ecology; freshwater mussels; major ions; metals; water quality; water resources management.)

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elfgen: A New Instream Flow Framework for Rapid Generation and Optimization of Flow–Ecology Relations

Kleiner

Passero

Burgholzer

et al. 2020

J American Water Resour Assoc

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Research Impact Statement: New framework developed for modeling the upper limits of biodiversity as a function of streamflow using principles of the river continuum concept and widely available hydrologic and ecological data. ABSTRACT: Effective water resource management requires practical, data-driven determination of instream flow needs. Newly developed, high-resolution flow models and aquatic species databases provide enormous opportunity, but the volume of data can prove challenging to manage without automated tools. The objective of this study was to develop a framework of analytical methods and best practices to reduce costs of entry into flow-ecology analysis by integrating widely available hydrologic and ecological datasets. Ecological limit functions (ELFs) describing the relation between maximum species richness and stream size characteristics (streamflow or drainage area) were developed. Species richness is expected to increase with streamflow through a watershed up to a point where it either plateaus or transitions to a decreasing trend in larger streams. Our results show that identifying the location of this "breakpoint" is critical for producing optimal ELF model fit. We found that richness breakpoints can be estimated using automated low-supervision methods, with high-supervision providing negligible improvement in detection accuracy. Model fit (and predictive capability) was found to be superior in smaller hydrologic units. The ELF model ("elfgen" R package available on GitHub: https://github.c om/HARPgroup/elfgen) can be used to generate ELFs using built-in datasets for the conterminous United States, or applied anywhere else streamflow and biodiversity data inputs are available.

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Reach‐Scale Comparison of Habitat and Mollusk Assemblages for Select Sites in the Clinch River with Regional Context

Cited by 4 publications

References 37 publications

Water and Sediment Quality in the Clinch River,Virginia andTennessee,USA, over Nearly Five Decades

Water and Sediment Quality in the Clinch River,Virginia andTennessee,USA, over Nearly Five Decades

Freshwater Mussel Population Status and Habitat Quality in the Clinch River, Virginia and Tennessee, USA: A Featured Collection

elfgen: A New Instream Flow Framework for Rapid Generation and Optimization of Flow–Ecology Relations

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