Restoring aquatic ecosystem connectivity requires expanding inventories of both dams and road crossings

Januchowski‐Hartley, Stephanie R.; McIntyre, Peter B.; Diebel, Matthew W.; Doran, Patrick J.; Infante, Dana M.; Joseph, Christine; Allan, J. David

doi:10.1890/120168

Cited by 175 publications

(159 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…Future investments in maintenance or replacement of dams and road crossings will come from many sources with various objectives, but ecological outcomes will generally be secondary to public use and safety issues. Thus, a promising conservation strategy is to leverage ongoing infrastructure maintenance activities by supporting lowcost, high-return add-ons to infrastructure projects that are already underway for other reasons (18,25). In addition, using ecological restoration value as a tie-breaker in selection of infrastructure projects might enhance connectivity at no cost whatsoever.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…18. Our dataset is smaller because we omit barriers on very small drainages that drain directly to the Great Lakes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Historically, breeding migrations of dozens of native fish species formed an important ecological link between the Great Lakes and their tributaries (17). Today, hundreds of thousands of dams and road culverts partially or fully block historical fish migration routes (18). There is growing investment in removing or modifying these structures, but project selection has been largely opportunistic and driven by local priorities.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We applied this model to a comprehensive barrier inventory for the GLB, encompassing 6,692 dams and 232,068 road crossings georeferenced within the 661 largest tributary watersheds (18). For each of these structures, we estimated the direct economic cost of restoring full passability (removal of dams or retrofitting road culverts) and the net upstream habitat that would become available, and we used estimates of the current passability of each culvert (22).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Enhancing ecosystem restoration efficiency through spatial and temporal coordination

Neeson

Ferris

Diebel

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

137

151

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In many large ecosystems, conservation projects are selected by a diverse set of actors operating independently at spatial scales ranging from local to international. Although small-scale decision making can leverage local expert knowledge, it also may be an inefficient means of achieving large-scale objectives if piecemeal efforts are poorly coordinated. Here, we assess the value of coordinating efforts in both space and time to maximize the restoration of aquatic ecosystem connectivity. Habitat fragmentation is a leading driver of declining biodiversity and ecosystem services in rivers worldwide, and we simultaneously evaluate optimal barrier removal strategies for 661 tributary rivers of the Laurentian Great Lakes, which are fragmented by at least 6,692 dams and 232,068 road crossings. We find that coordinating barrier removals across the entire basin is nine times more efficient at reconnecting fish to headwater breeding grounds than optimizing independently for each watershed. Similarly, a one-time pulse of restoration investment is up to 10 times more efficient than annual allocations totaling the same amount. Despite widespread emphasis on dams as key barriers in river networks, improving road culvert passability is also essential for efficiently restoring connectivity to the Great Lakes. Our results highlight the dramatic economic and ecological advantages of coordinating efforts in both space and time during restoration of large ecosystems.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…18. Our dataset is smaller because we omit barriers on very small drainages that drain directly to the Great Lakes.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Enhancing ecosystem restoration efficiency through spatial and temporal coordination

Neeson

Ferris

Diebel

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

137

151

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“…The net effect is to limit downstream sediment flux (Januchowski-Hartley et al, 2013). Although individual road crossings can create relatively minor and local alterations, the cumulative effect of hundreds of road crossing within a drainage basin can be substantial (FSSSWG, 2008).…”

Section: Reduced Sediment Supply To or Within River Corridorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legacy effects on sediments in river corridors

Wohl

2015

Earth-Science Reviews

156

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Small instream infrastructure: Comparative methods and evidence of environmental and ecological responses

Januchowski‐Hartley

Mantel

Celi

et al. 2020

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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1. Around the globe, instream infrastructures such as dams, weirs, and culverts associated with roads are widespread and continue to be constructed. There is limited documentation of smaller infrastructure because of mixed regulation and laws related to instream construction, as well as difficulty in documentation because of their size and frequency in waterscapes. 2. We reviewed evidence of different methods used to quantify environmental and ecological responses (positive, negative, or neutral) to dams, weirs, and culverts. 3. Most studies (78% of 87) in our review evaluated dams or weirs, and more than half evaluated environmental or ecological responses at more than one of these structures. More than half of the studies used spatial (disturbed-undisturbed in the same or a different catchment) rather than temporal (before-after construction or before-after destruction) comparative methods. Evaluations also tended to focus on ecological variables, most specifically on fish community responses (just over a quarter) to infrastructure. 4. More than half (58%) of the evaluations at dams, weirs, or culverts reported negative environmental or ecological responses. Discrepancies in responses recorded for different infrastructure types could be partially explained by the focus on ecological responses in reviewed studies and related metrics used for evaluations (e.g. biotic groups, richness, and abundance), the imbalance of studies at different infrastructure types, and discrepancies in spatial and temporal scales of evaluations compared to those at which the variables respond to infrastructure. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Restoring aquatic ecosystem connectivity requires expanding inventories of both dams and road crossings

Cited by 175 publications

References 27 publications

Enhancing ecosystem restoration efficiency through spatial and temporal coordination

Enhancing ecosystem restoration efficiency through spatial and temporal coordination

Legacy effects on sediments in river corridors

Small instream infrastructure: Comparative methods and evidence of environmental and ecological responses

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