The Thirsty Eel: Summer and Winter Flow Thresholds that Tilt the Eel River of Northwestern California from Salmon-Supporting to Cyanobacterially Degraded States

Power, Mary E.; Bouma‐Gregson, Keith; Higgins, Patrick; Carlson, Stephanie M.

doi:10.1643/ce-14-086

Cited by 50 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Pool networks become disconnected and food webs are broken 6 . Intermittent streams, which provide rearing and breeding habitats for river biota, are especially vulnerable to drought 7 .…”

Section: Adaptation Legacymentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Water and climate: Recognize anthropogenic drought

AghaKouchak

Feldman

Hoerling

et al. 2015

Nature

290

161

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“…Pool networks become disconnected and food webs are broken 6 . Intermittent streams, which provide rearing and breeding habitats for river biota, are especially vulnerable to drought 7 .…”

Section: Adaptation Legacymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Intermittent streams, which provide rearing and breeding habitats for river biota, are especially vulnerable to drought 7 . Reduced stream flow and snow melt in warm dry periods 8 further diminish natural groundwater and stream flow in a cycle that compromises habitats for native fish, including delta smelt and salmon 6,8 .…”

Section: Adaptation Legacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Water and climate: Recognize anthropogenic drought

AghaKouchak

Feldman

Hoerling

et al. 2015

Nature

290

161

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…1. The study catchments are relatively steep, forested, and situated within the US western coastal mediterranean climate region (Peel and Finlayson, 2007), which is characterized by a distinct rainy season (with little or no snowfall), followed by a pronounced dry season during which precipitation makes a minimal contribution to the water balance (Power et al, 2015;Dralle et al, 2015). While average annual rainfall for the study catchments ranges from about 1m to 2m, the highly variable rainfall climatology characteristic of mediterranean regions (Fatichi et al, 2012) might be considered ideal for a recession sensitivity analysis, as catchments experience a large range of recession behaviors and wetness states.…”

Section: Study Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Event-scale power law recession analysis: quantifying methodological uncertainty

Dralle

Karst

Charalampous

et al. 2017

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. The study of single streamflow recession events is receiving increasing attention following the presentation of novel theoretical explanations for the emergence of power law forms of the recession relationship, and drivers of its variability. Individually characterizing streamflow recessions often involves describing the similarities and differences between model parameters fitted to each recession time series. Significant methodological sensitivity has been identified in the fitting and parameterization of models that describe populations of many recessions, but the dependence of estimated model parameters on methodological choices has not been evaluated for event-by-event forms of analysis. Here, we use daily streamflow data from 16 catchments in northern California and southern Oregon to investigate how combinations of commonly used streamflow recession definitions and fitting techniques impact parameter estimates of a widely used power law recession model. Results are relevant to watersheds that are relatively steep, forested, and rain-dominated. The highly seasonal mediterranean climate of northern California and southern Oregon ensures study catchments explore a wide range of recession behaviors and wetness states, ideal for a sensitivity analysis. In such catchments, we show the following: (i) methodological decisions, including ones that have received little attention in the literature, can impact parameter value estimates and model goodness of fit; (ii) the central tendencies of event-scale recession parameter probability distributions are largely robust to methodological choices, in the sense that differing methods rank catchments similarly according to the medians of these distributions; (iii) recession parameter distributions are method-dependent, but roughly catchment-independent, such that changing the choices made about a particular method affects a given parameter in similar ways across most catchments; and (iv) the observed correlative relationship between the power-law recession scale parameter and catchment antecedent wetness varies depending on recession definition and fitting choices. Considering study results, we recommend a combination of four key methodological decisions to maximize the quality of fitted recession curves, and to minimize bias in the related populations of fitted recession parameters.

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“…Predicting the outcome of altered thermal conditions is further complicated by the many ways in which water temperature can affect riverine organisms and communities. In contrast, mortality and fitness can change incrementally when thermal conditions alter an organism's basic physiological processes such as the conversion of food into body tissue (Robinson & Childs, 2001;Windell, 1978), or indirectly by altering the outcome of species interactions (Cao, Li, & Jeppesen, 2014;Grigaltchik, Ward, & Seebacher, 2012;Power, Bouma-Gregson, Higgins, & Carlson, 2015). In contrast, mortality and fitness can change incrementally when thermal conditions alter an organism's basic physiological processes such as the conversion of food into body tissue (Robinson & Childs, 2001;Windell, 1978), or indirectly by altering the outcome of species interactions (Cao, Li, & Jeppesen, 2014;Grigaltchik, Ward, & Seebacher, 2012;Power, Bouma-Gregson, Higgins, & Carlson, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The acute effects include increased disease and parasite prevalence (Adams et al, 2017;Kupferberg, Catenazzi, Lunde, Lind, & Palen, 2009) and mass mortality events (Fey et al, 2015) when individuals experience episodes of low or high temperatures beyond their critical limits (Beitinger, Bennett, & McCauley, 2000;Gunn & Snucins, 2010;Richter & Kolmes, 2005). Along with the differential responses of interacting species to temperature, thermal shifts can decrease the strength of trophic cascades controlling the flow of energy and nutrients in river food webs (Kishi, Murakami, Nakano, & Maekawa, 2005;Power et al, 2015). Along with the differential responses of interacting species to temperature, thermal shifts can decrease the strength of trophic cascades controlling the flow of energy and nutrients in river food webs (Kishi, Murakami, Nakano, & Maekawa, 2005;Power et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consequences of dam‐altered thermal regimes for a riverine herbivore's digestive efficiency, growth and vulnerability to predation

Catenazzi

Kupferberg

2018

Freshwater Biology

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Rivers around the world are undergoing shifts in thermal regime due to climate change and human appropriation of water resources. The local impacts of thermal regime change are challenging to predict because water temperature can influence aquatic organisms and communities at multiple levels simultaneously. For example, thermal change can influence the phenology of periphyton blooms, primary consumer physiology and behaviour, and interspecific interactions with predators. Using tadpoles of the threatened river‐breeding foothill yellow‐legged frog (Rana boylii, Ranidae), their algal foods and their invertebrate predators, we mimicked dam‐induced changes in temperature and observed the outcome of consumer–resource interactions. In stream enclosures, we reared tadpoles across a gradient of cold to warm conditions, quantified the ash content of diet, digestive efficiency and growth rate, and assessed their vulnerability to hemipteran and odonate predators. Tadpoles reared in a cool stream (15.5°C daily mean) digested epilithic periphyton poorly (6.6 ± 0.4% assimilation efficiency). In contrast, average assimilation efficiency of tadpoles reared at 19°C was 11.6 ± 0.1%. Access to nutritious diatoms (i.e. dinitrogen‐fixing Epithemia spp., Rhopalodiaceae) increased assimilation efficiency to 10.1 ± 0.1% and 13.8 ± 0.1% in the cool and warm treatments, respectively. Assimilation efficiency correlated positively with tadpole growth rate (R = 0.66, p < .001). The effect of temperature on mortality due to predation was mediated by low tadpole growth rates at cool temperatures and not by the temperature of predator exposure. Non‐lethal effects of predators on tadpole growth and tail injury, however, depended on both rearing temperature and exposure temperature. Contrary to the expectation that the cost of predator avoidance behaviours may be greater at warmer exposure temperatures because basal metabolic rates are higher, our results indicated that the energetic cost of foraging less was amplified at cool temperatures. Our results show that when thermal conditions impair digestion in a species’ early life stages, recruitment bottlenecks are likely to arise due to the combined negative effects of cool temperatures on assimilation efficiency and growth, and increased predation by invertebrates.

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The Thirsty Eel: Summer and Winter Flow Thresholds that Tilt the Eel River of Northwestern California from Salmon-Supporting to Cyanobacterially Degraded States

Cited by 50 publications

References 48 publications

Water and climate: Recognize anthropogenic drought

Water and climate: Recognize anthropogenic drought

Event-scale power law recession analysis: quantifying methodological uncertainty

Consequences of dam‐altered thermal regimes for a riverine herbivore's digestive efficiency, growth and vulnerability to predation

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