2023 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference

March 5-7, 2023 • Cincinnati, OH

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5/25/2021 | 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM | TRACKING FOOD WEB PRODUCTIVITY TO INFORM INSTREAM FLOW RECOMMENDATIONS | Virtual Platform

TRACKING FOOD WEB PRODUCTIVITY TO INFORM INSTREAM FLOW RECOMMENDATIONS

Given the extensive hydrologic alteration of streams globally, there is a need for a mechanistic understanding of how stream flows influence productivity waves through food webs. Here, we quantify food web productivity during the spring-summer snowmelt recession limb to improve instream flow recommendations in a heavily diverted watershed (> 90% of flow is diverted in the summer), the Upper Shasta River, California, USA. We tracked productivity of benthic biofilms, standing crop of benthic macroinvertebrates, and rates of drifting macroinvertebrates above and below the water diversion. We found that below the diversion, productivity of biofilms and benthic macroinvertebrates remained high despite flow reductions, but food availability to trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) was reduced as fewer invertebrates drifted in stagnant waters. We observed that the loss of drift forced trout to switch from energetically favorable drift feeding behavior to energetically expensive benthic/search feeding behavior 1 month earlier in the summer below the diversion than above. We are implementing bioenergetics models to quantify trout energetic condition under impaired food availability and hydraulic conditions across different stream flows. This modeling will support instream flow recommendations that synthesize ecologic and hydrologic conditions for fish.

Food webs
Restoration
Biological effects

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Presenters/Authors

Suzanne Kelson (), University of Nevada, Reno, skelson@unr.edu;