2010 Proposal: Forecasting the impacts of climate change in the Columbia River Basin: Threats to fish habitat connectivity
2010 Proposal
Dates
Date Received
2010
Summary
For the past six years, the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) has funded the USGS to study fish responses to restoration efforts and to construct a model relating stream habitat with fish population dynamics in the Methow River Basin, a tributary of the Columbia River. In the proposed study, we will use fish growth, distribution and movement (USGS data), foodweb data (Idaho State University), river flow (BOR data that we will expand) and water temperature data (from numerous agencies) to develop spatially-explicit bioenergetics models to assess effects of climate change on the viability of resident salmonid populations based on models being developed by USGS. The bioenergetics models will integrate such things as climate-change driven alterations [...]
Summary
For the past six years, the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) has funded the USGS to study fish responses to restoration efforts and to construct a model relating stream habitat with fish population dynamics in the Methow River Basin, a tributary of the Columbia River. In the proposed study, we will use fish growth, distribution and movement (USGS data), foodweb data (Idaho State University), river flow (BOR data that we will expand) and water temperature data (from numerous agencies) to develop spatially-explicit bioenergetics models to assess effects of climate change on the viability of resident salmonid populations based on models being developed by USGS. The bioenergetics models will integrate such things as climate-change driven alterations in the physical environment (water flow, temperature, habitat connectivity), changes in food availability from the perspective of fish as prey and predators, fish movements within the Methow River and into the Columbia River and the growth of individuals. These variables will, in turn, be used to examine possible changes in population dynamics.