Short-Term Effects of the 2008 High-Flow Experiment on Macroinvertebrates in Colorado River Below Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona

Rosi-Marshall, Emma J.; Kennedy, Theodore A.; Kincaid, Dustin W.; Cross, Wyatt F.; Kelly, Holly A. Wellard; Behn, Kathrine A.; White, T R; Hall, Robert O.; Baxter, Colden V.

doi:10.3133/ofr20101031

Cited by 7 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…This averaging allowed us to (a) better capture the range of river conditions representative of the Colorado River management regime, and (b) overcome potential idiosyncrasies that may result from smaller sample sizes associated with individual years. We found that major inter-annual differences in food-web characteristics were largely manifested at site 1, and these results are interpreted and reported in Rosi-Marshall et al (2010) and Cross et al (2011). Here, we limit our inter-annual analysis to quantifying effects of the 2008 flood perturbation on ''stability'' of consumer production.…”

supporting

confidence: 90%

Food‐web dynamics in a large river discontinuum

Cross

Baxter

Rosi‐Marshall

et al. 2013

Ecological Monographs

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Abstract. Nearly all ecosystems have been altered by human activities, and most communities are now composed of interacting species that have not co-evolved. These changes may modify species interactions, energy and material flows, and food-web stability. Although structural changes to ecosystems have been widely reported, few studies have linked such changes to dynamic food-web attributes and patterns of energy flow. Moreover, there have been few tests of food-web stability theory in highly disturbed and intensely managed freshwater ecosystems. Such synthetic approaches are needed for predicting the future trajectory of ecosystems, including how they may respond to natural or anthropogenic perturbations.We constructed flow food webs at six locations along a 386-km segment of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon (Arizona, USA) for three years. We characterized food-web structure and production, trophic basis of production, energy efficiencies, and interaction-strength distributions across a spatial gradient of perturbation (i.e., distance from Glen Canyon Dam), as well as before and after an experimental flood. We found strong longitudinal patterns in food-web characteristics that strongly correlated with the spatial position of large tributaries. Above tributaries, food webs were dominated by nonnative New Zealand mudsnails (62% of production) and nonnative rainbow trout (100% of fish production). The simple structure of these food webs led to few dominant energy pathways (diatoms to few invertebrate taxa to rainbow trout), large energy inefficiencies (i.e., ,20% of invertebrate production consumed by fishes), and right-skewed interaction-strength distributions, consistent with theoretical instability.Below large tributaries, invertebrate production declined ;18-fold, while fish production remained similar to upstream sites and comprised predominately native taxa (80-100% of production). Sites below large tributaries had increasingly reticulate and detritus-based food webs with a higher prevalence of omnivory, as well as interaction strength distributions more typical of theoretically stable food webs (i.e., nearly twofold higher proportion of weak interactions). Consistent with theory, downstream food webs were less responsive to the experimental flood than sites closest to the dam. We show how human-induced shifts to foodweb structure can affect energy flow and interaction strengths, and we show that these changes have consequences for food-web function and response to perturbations.

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supporting

confidence: 90%

Food‐web dynamics in a large river discontinuum

Cross

Baxter

Rosi‐Marshall

et al. 2013

Ecological Monographs

Self Cite

166

194

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“…The simulated velocity results are reasonable and fitted with the method proposed by Graf [46]. The simulated water depth is fitted with the previous study [47] and the simulated results of the temperature distribution are also in line with the previous study [48,49]. Figure 8 shows the calculated HSI distribution for spawning and juvenile rainbow trout.…”

Section: High Flow Effects On Spawning and Juvenile Rainbow Trout Habsupporting

confidence: 81%

Simulating Spawning and Juvenile Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Habitat in Colorado River Based on High-Flow Effects

Yao

Liu

Chen

et al. 2017

Water

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High flow generates significant alterations in downstream river reaches, resulting in physical condition changes in the downstream regions of the river such as water depth, flow velocity, water temperature and river bed. These alterations will lead to change in fish habitat configuration in the river. This paper proposes a model system to evaluate the high flow effects on river velocity, water depth, substrates changes, temperature distribution and consequently assess the change in spawning and juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) habitats in the downstream region of the Glen Canyon Dam. Firstly, based on the 2 dimensional (2D) depth-averaged CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) model and heat transfer equation applied for simulation, three indices were simulated, namely depth, flow velocity and temperature distribution. Then, the spawning and juvenile fish preference curves were obtained based on these three indices and substrates distribution. After that, the habitat model was proposed and used to simulate the high flow effects on juvenile and spawning rainbow trout habitat structure. Finally, the weighted usable area (WUA) and overall suitability index (OSI) of the spawning and juvenile fish species were quantitatively simulated to estimate the habitat sensitivity. The results illustrate that the high flow effect (HFE) increased the juvenile rainbow trout habitat quality but decreased the spawning rainbow trout habitat quality. The juvenile trout were mainly affected by the water depth while the spawning rainbow trout were dominated by the bed elevation.

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“…Prey limitation has been shown to lead to slower growth of small age-0 Rainbow Trout and to increase the probability of winter starvation (Biro et al 2004); prey limitation can also lead to increases in predation mortality if more time is spent foraging in riskier habitats where prey are available (Werner and Gilliam 1984;Walters and Juanes 1993;Post et al 1999). In the Glen Canyon population, survival of age-0 individuals over the summer was higher when prey availability increased after the 2008 springtime high-flow experiment (Rosi-Marshall et al 2010;Cross et al 2011;Korman et al 2011) and during the high and steady flows in summer 2011 T. A. Kennedy, unpublished data).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Trends in Rainbow Trout Recruitment, Abundance, Survival, and Growth during a Boom‐and‐Bust Cycle in a Tailwater Fishery

Korman¹,

Yard

Kennedy

2017

Trans Am Fish Soc

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Data from a large‐scale mark–recapture study were used in an open‐population model to determine the cause for long‐term trends in growth and abundance of a Rainbow Trout Oncorhynchus mykiss population in the tailwater of Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona. Reduced growth affected multiple life stages and processes, causing negative feedbacks that regulated the abundance of the population, including higher mortality of larger fish; lower rates of recruitment (young of the year) during years when growth was reduced; and lower rates of sexual maturation in the following year. High and steady flows during spring and summer 2011 resulted in a very large recruitment event. The population had declined tenfold by 2016 due to a combination of lower recruitment and reduced survival of larger trout. Survival rates for 225‐mm and larger Rainbow Trout in 2014, 2015, and 2016 were 11, 21, and 22% lower, respectively, than average survival rates between 2012 and 2013. Abundance at the end of the study would have been threefold to fivefold higher if survival rates for larger individuals had remained at the elevated levels estimated for 2012 and 2013. Growth declined between 2012 and 2014 owing to reduced prey availability, which led to very poor fish condition (~0.90–0.95) by fall 2014. Poor condition in turn resulted in low survival rates of larger fish during fall 2014 and winter 2015, which contributed to the population collapse. In Glen Canyon, large recruitment events driven by high flows can lead to population increases that cannot be sustained due to limitations in prey supply. When the ability to regulate prey supply is lacking, flows that reduce the probability of large recruitment events can be used to avoid boom‐and‐bust population cycles. Our study demonstrates that mark–recapture is a very informative approach for understanding the dynamics of tailwater trout populations. Received December 6, 2016; accepted March 31, 2017 Published online August 2, 2017

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Short-Term Effects of the 2008 High-Flow Experiment on Macroinvertebrates in Colorado River Below Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona

Cited by 7 publications

References 25 publications

Food‐web dynamics in a large river discontinuum

Food‐web dynamics in a large river discontinuum

Simulating Spawning and Juvenile Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) Habitat in Colorado River Based on High-Flow Effects

Trends in Rainbow Trout Recruitment, Abundance, Survival, and Growth during a Boom‐and‐Bust Cycle in a Tailwater Fishery

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