2022 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Virtual Conference
March 13 - 15, 2022
5/21/2018 | 3:15 PM - 3:30 PM | ALTERATION OF STREAMFLOW REGIMES IN THE UNITED STATES | 410 B
ALTERATION OF STREAMFLOW REGIMES IN THE UNITED STATES
A multitude of studies have documented how changes in stream hydrology caused by land conversion, water infrastructure, and other human activities result in fish population declines, ecosystem degradation and loss of freshwater biodiversity. Yet the nature, severity, and extent of flow alteration at regional and national scales remain unquantified despite the existence of a large, long-term gauge network in the US. A major obstacle in quantifying flow alteration is the limited availability of information on hydrologic conditions in the absence of human influence.
Here, we assessed the patterns and degree of flow alteration in streams across the conterminous US, focusing on flow regime components of known or hypothesized relevance to aquatic ecosystem health. We used statistical models to predict expected natural values of metrics of the flow regime at more than three thousand gauged sites. Predictions were then compared with observed conditions to assess deviation from natural conditions, while accounting for model prediction error.
In general, substantial reductions in variations of high- and low-flow events were associated with all human activities across the US. Different regional patterns in flow alterations were associated for each type of human activity.
- Dams
- Flow
- Hydrology
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Presenters/Authors
Ken Eng
(), U.S. Geological Survey, keng@usgs.gov;
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