Yuba River analysis aims to aid spring-run chinook salmon habitat rehabilitation

Pasternack, G. B.; Fulton, Aaron A.; Morford, Scott L.

doi:10.3733/ca.v064n02p69

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Recent efforts have been undertaken to expand the range of migrating Chinook salmon from the Bay-Delta to spawning sites along rivers in the Sierra foothills, such as the Yuba R., by altering the physical environment through gravel augmentation and regrading bar forms (e.g., (Moir and Pasternack, 2010;Pasternack et al, 2010)), as well as by constructing increased connection for juvenile salmon to enter major river floodplains (Sommer et al, 2001). Given the high levels of contamination prevalent in sediment and biota in the sectors studied, coupled with continued MMHg production potential under flooding conditions within river floodplains, and past evidence of higher methylmercury concentrations in fish feeding in contaminated environments (Henery et al, 2010), caution should be exercised in plans to attract more anadromous fish to enter, feed, and spawn in any part of these contaminated riverscapes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrologic indicators of hot spots and hot moments of mercury methylation potential along river corridors

Singer

Harrison

Donovan

et al. 2016

Science of The Total Environment

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The biogeochemical cycling of metals and other contaminants in river-floodplain corridors is controlled by microbial activity responding to dynamic redox conditions. Riverine flooding thus has the potential to affect speciation of redox-sensitive metals such as mercury (Hg). Therefore, inundation history over a period of decades potentially holds information on past production of bioavailable Hg. We investigate this within a Northern California river system with a legacy of landscape-scale 19th century hydraulic gold mining. We combine hydraulic modeling, Hg measurements in sediment and biota, and first-order calculations of mercury transformation to assess the potential role of river floodplains in producing monomethylmercury (MMHg), a neurotoxin which accumulates in local and migratory food webs. We identify frequently inundated floodplain areas, as well as floodplain areas inundated for long periods. We quantify the probability of MMHg production potential (MPP) associated with hydrology in each sector of the river system as a function of the spatial patterns of overbank inundation and drainage, which affect long-term redox history of contaminated sediments. Our findings identify river floodplains as periodic, temporary, yet potentially important, loci of biogeochemical transformation in which contaminants may undergo change during limited periods of the hydrologic record. We suggest that inundation is an important driver of MPP in river corridors and that the entire flow history must be analyzed retrospectively in terms of inundation magnitude and frequency in order to accurately assess biogeochemical risks, rather than merely highlighting the largest floods or low-flow periods. MMHg bioaccumulation within the aquatic food web in this system may pose a major risk to humans and waterfowl that eat migratory salmonids, which are being encouraged to come up these rivers to spawn. There is a long-term pattern of MPP under the current flow regime that is likely to be accentuated by increasingly common large floods with extended duration.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydrologic indicators of hot spots and hot moments of mercury methylation potential along river corridors

Singer

Harrison

Donovan

et al. 2016

Science of The Total Environment

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“…This geographical diversity creates a down gradient morphological succession that was useful for this study. The river transitions from a steeper bedrock canyon (Pasternack et al ., ) to valley‐confined with braiding at wide sections (White et al ., ), to anastomosing (where flood flows spread into multiple, relatively persistent channels), to meandering with moderate gradient, and finally, to a confined, low gradient, leveed channel just upstream of its confluence with the Feather River in Marysville, CA.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 97%

Selecting Between One-Dimensional and Two-Dimensional Hydrodynamic Models for Ecohydraulic Analysis

Gibson

Pasternack

2015

River Res. Applic.

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14Aquatic habitat assessment and river restoration design require geospatially explicit maps of 15 hydraulic conditions. Diverse mechanistic ecohydraulic models compute spatially explicit depth 16and velocity results to evaluate habitat suitability spatially as a function of these abiotic 17conditions. This study compared depth and velocity results from two-dimensional (2D) and one-18 dimensional (1D) hydraulic models with algorithms that laterally discretize 1D velocity and 19 interpolate depth and velocity spatially based on the Laplacian heat mapping approach. These 20 'conveyance distributed' methods constitute 'best 1D modeling practice', and were compared to 21 2D results for the first time. The 1D and 2D models were applied to three morphologically 22 distinct reaches (leveed, meandering, and anastomosing) for three flows (base, bankfull, and 23 flood flows) of the partially regulated, gravel/cobble lower Yuba River in north-central California. 24The test metrics were the coefficient of determination (R 2 ) and the median absolute residual 25 ( ). These metrics quantified the incremental uncertainty 1D approximation incurs, results 26 which make explicit cost-benefit processes of model selection possible.

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“…The confined bedrock canyon has low sinuosity, an average bankfull width of 59 m, and a mean slope of 0.31%. Beginning in 2007, gravel/cobble augmentation has been regularly implemented by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers below Englebright Dam to ensure availability of gravel substrate suitable for salmonid spawning (Pasternack et al, 2010). As a result, substrate includes pre‐existing bedrock, boulders, and angular shot rock plus injected gravel and cobble.…”

Section: Study Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated analysis of lateral river connectivity and fish stranding risks. Part 2: Juvenile Chinook salmon stranding at a river rehabilitation site

Larrieu

Pasternack

2021

Ecohydrology

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The dynamics of fish stranding have not been academically investigated within the context of physical adjustments to rivers for habitat enhancement purposes. River projects may aim to help fish populations but instead may function as attractive nuisances reducing populations because of unaccounted‐for stranding risk. This study applies a novel algorithm to predict spatially explicit, meter‐resolution fish stranding risk at a river rehabilitation site in California to address three scientific questions. Postproject disconnected wetted area predictions were validated against water surface elevation measurements and time lapse photography of flow reductions and stranding events. A comparison of preproject, final design, and postproject topographies revealed that the occurrence and severity of stranding events is highly sensitive to side‐channel topographic structure and postproject morphodynamic change. Even with moderate flows, side‐channel exits tend to close off by bars built across them via bedload transport. Implications for river management practices and river rehabilitation project design are discussed.

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Yuba River analysis aims to aid spring-run chinook salmon habitat rehabilitation

Cited by 9 publications

References 8 publications

Hydrologic indicators of hot spots and hot moments of mercury methylation potential along river corridors

Hydrologic indicators of hot spots and hot moments of mercury methylation potential along river corridors

Selecting Between One-Dimensional and Two-Dimensional Hydrodynamic Models for Ecohydraulic Analysis

Automated analysis of lateral river connectivity and fish stranding risks. Part 2: Juvenile Chinook salmon stranding at a river rehabilitation site

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