Final Report: Implications for Connectivity and Movement of Lotic Great Plains Fishes in the Face of Climate Change.

Date Reported

2014-07-01 05:00:00

Start Date

2014-07-01 05:00:00

End Date

2014-07-01 05:00:00

Brenda M Pracheil(Author), Christopher J. Chizinski(Author), Joshuah S. Perkin(Author), Mark A. Pegg(Author), Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative(publisher), 2014-07-01(Reported), Final Report: Implications for Connectivity and Movement of Lotic Great Plains Fishes in the Face of Climate Change.

Type: webLink

Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative(Distributor)

In this study, we sought to 1) identify the magnitude of potential in-stream barriers to fish movement (e.g., dams and river-stream crossings; RSX), 2) predict fish species distributions under climate change scenarios, 3) identify the potential for joint threats of climate change and barriers to fishes in Nebraska and a large portion of the Great Plains. We used the Missouri River Basin as the largest spatial scale for our analysis and as a proxy for the Great Plains because a majority of the land area of the Great Plains is contained within the Missouri River basin and the state of Nebraska (the focus of our smaller spatial scale analysis) is entirely contained within the Missouri River Basin. The river networks within this basin also provide a sound ecological and evolutionary backdrop for understanding fish distributions. Our approach also shed light on smaller spatial scales (e.g., geopolitical boundaries – Nebraska) to assess which are the most vulnerable fish species to climate change. We used data from publically available sources to predict current and future (2050 and 2100) fish species distributions. Conceptually, we overlaid down-scaled Global Climate Model data to assess climatic conditions as well as fish species thermal tolerance data and potential barrier to movement data to predict future fish species distributions and/or identify species that may be vulnerable to climate projections.

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