Enhancing Water Temperature Monitoring Efforts across Alaska through Collaborative Leveraging of a Statewide Database

Water temperatures affect the distribution, growth potential, and productivity of stream fishes that are targeted in subsistence, sport, and commercial fisheries across Alaska, making stream and lake temperature data critical for managing freshwater resources. Evaluating the variation in temperatures across Alaska will improve understanding of impacts of both climate change and development on freshwater habitats. However, collection and dissemination of water temperature data is an ongoing challenge across Alaska.  

To address this challenge, the research team will increase cooperation and coordination among data collectors in Interior Alaska by conducting an in-person stream temperature trainingand adapting the organizational framework for temperature monitoring networks used successfully in other regions of Alaska. Researchers will also hold an Alaska water temperature workshop to identify management needs, develop an updated 10-year statewide action plan, and build data visualization and tools that support monitoring, modeling, research, and resource management. The research team will reach out to regional temperature monitoring coordinators; managers at State and Federal agencies; Alaska Fish and Wildlife Cooperative Research Unit scientists; Fish Habitat Partnership coordinators; non-governmental organizations; and tribal organizations to participate in training opportunities, the regional networks, and the workshop.  

Actionable science outcomes from this project include creation of regional water temperature monitoring networks for Interior Alaska, an updated 10-year statewide water temperature action plan with prioritized actions, and data visualization and decision support tools built upon the new statewide water temperature database (ATKEMP) that can be used by researchers, managers, and other invested parties to support modeling, inform management decisions, and make monitoring data more widely accessible.