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ms have reduced distribution of the endangered Colorado pikeminnow Ptychocheilus lucius in the upper Colorado River basin: low-head diversion dams blocked upstream passage and large dams inundated free-flowing segments and cooled downstream reaches with deep-water releases. To date, range restoration efforts in the Colorado and Gunnison Rivers have focused on building fish ladders around diversion dams to allow recolonization of upstream reaches. Upstream thermal suitability for this warmwater cyprinid was assessed using temperature data and existing distributional information from river reaches where Colorado pikeminnow movements were unrestricted. Among-site thermal regime comparisons were made using mean annual...
Larval and juvenile Colorado pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius) use shallow, low-velocity, channel-margin areas (backwaters) as nursery habitats. It is hypothesized that within-day flow fluctuations caused by hydropower operations can directly affect the suitability of such habitats by altering water temperature and habitat geometry. Despite the importance of backwaters to juvenile fishes, there is a lack of established approaches for modelling how river management affects these habitats. Here, we describe a physical habitat model that predicts the effects of mainstem flow variation on backwater temperature, geometry and invertebrate availability. We specifically modelled these effects on habitat in a portion of...
Globally, rivers are increasingly being subjected to various levels of physical alteration and river regulation to provide humans with services such as hydropower, freshwater, flood control, irrigation and recreation. Although river regulation plays an important role in modern society, there are potential consequences which may negatively affect fish and fish habitat. While much effort has been expended examining the response of fish to fluctuating flow regimes in different systems, there has been little in the way of a comprehensive synthesis. In an effort to better understand the effects of river regulation on fish and fish habitat, we conducted a systematic review of available literature with three goals: (1)...
As global climate change affects recharge and runoff processes, stream flow regimes are being altered. In the American Southwest, increasing aridity is predicted to cause declines in stream base flows and water tables. Another potential outcome of climate change is increased flood intensity. Changes in these stream flow conditions may independently affect vegetation or may have synergistic effects. Our goal was to extrapolate vegetation response to climate-linked stream flow changes, by taking advantage of the spatial variation in flow conditions over a 200 km length of the San Pedro River (Arizona). Riparian vegetation traits were contrasted between sites differing in low-flow hydrology (degree of stream intermittency)...
Small-bodied, riverine minnows that historically characterized fish assemblages of Great Plains rivers in North America have declined because of river fragmentation, dewatering, river channel degradation, river salinization and nonnative species introductions. The Pecos bluntnose shiner Notropis simus pecosensis, a member of this guild, persists in one segment of the Pecos River, New Mexico, USA. We characterized habitat associations for the species at two spatial scales. In general, N. s. pecosensis associated with fluvial habitats, but velocity association depended on body size, with larger individuals using swifter habitats. All N. s. pecosensis associated with relatively low depths (3–51 cm), which were most...
We compared beaver (Castor canadensis) foraging patterns on Fremont cottonwood (Populus deltoides subsp. wislizenii) saplings and the probability of saplings being cut on a 10 km reach of the flow-regulated Green River and a 8.6 km reach of the free-flowing Yampa River in northwestern Colorado. We measured the abundance and density of cottonwood on each reach and followed the fates of individually marked saplings in three patches of cottonwood on the Yampa River and two patches on the Green River. Two natural floods on the Yampa River and one controlled flood on the Green River between May 1998 and November 1999 allowed us to assess the effect of flooding on beaver herbivory. Independent of beaver herbivory, flow...
We investigate herein the hypothesis that there is a significant relationship between bed particle mobility and benthic invertebrate abundance in the gravel-bed channel of the upper Colorado River in Rocky Mountain National Park. A large diversion channel called the Grand Ditch normally diverts a significant portion (?50%) of the annual snowmelt runoff from the watershed northward out of the basin. In May 2003, a ?30-m section of the ditch was breached, contributing substantially to the magnitude and duration of discharge in the Colorado River until the ditch breach was repaired in July of that year. As a result, all grain sizes in the river channel were mobilized, which contrasted sharply with the minimal gravel...
The quantity of water that should be retained in streams and rivers for the benefit of fish during periods of water scarcity is a question of considerable interest to river managers and biologists. Although instream flow methodologies have existed since the 1970s, no single method has been widely accepted for use on large warm-water rivers because of their high species richness and generalized fish habitat use patterns. In this paper, we present an approach similar to instream flow incremental methodology, but which uses two-dimensional flow models and biomass estimates derived from multiple sites on two Colorado rivers for predicting the effect of discharge on adult standing stocks of two native fish species. Suitability...
The numbers and sizes of sand beaches suitable for recreation along selected whitewater rivers in the western United States depend on sand concentrations, range of discharge and the size, frequency and type of depositional settings. River-width expansions downstream from constrictions are the predominant depositional setting for sand beaches in the upper Grand Canyon and along five Wild and Scenic Rivers in Idaho, but not along other rivers. Beaches located upstream from constrictions are rare, in general, except in the Grand Canyon. Beaches found in expansions without constrictions dominate depositional sites along the Yampa and Green Rivers, are fairly common along the rivers in Idaho, but are relatively rare...
This study examines channel form of the Verde River system in order to explain system fragmentation. Morphologic analyses draw from discharge and shear stress calculations generated by modelling the flow through 14 surveyed cross-sections along the Verde River, representing six river segments with distinct hydrologic and geologic characteristics. At-a-station and downstream hydraulic geometries for the Verde River highlight local variability in channel morphology. Modified at-a-station hydraulic geometry analyses using cross-section subsection discharge and shear stress values similarly show greater variability within cross-sections than between cross-sections. Competence and capacity increase at a fairly uniform...
Flow regulation effects on floodplain forests in the semi-arid western United States are moderately well understood, whereas effects associated with changes in floodplain land use are poorly documented. We mapped land cover patterns from recent aerial photos and applied a classification scheme to mainstem alluvial floodplains in 10 subjectively selected 4th order hydrologic units (subbasins) in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB) in order to document land use patterns (floodplain development) and assess their effects on Fremont cottonwood forest (CF) regeneration. Three of the mainstem rivers were unregulated, five were moderately regulated and two were highly regulated. We classified polygons as Undeveloped (with...
Wavelet analysis is a powerful tool with which to analyse the hydrologic effects of dam construction and operation on river systems. Using continuous records of instantaneous discharge from the Lees Ferry gauging station and records of daily mean discharge from upstream tributaries, we conducted wavelet analyses of the hydrologic structure of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. The wavelet power spectrum (WPS) of daily mean discharge provided a highly compressed and integrative picture of the post-dam elimination of pronounced annual and sub-annual flow features. The WPS of the continuous record showed the influence of diurnal and weekly power generation cycles, shifts in discharge management, and the 1996 experimental...
A two-dimensional hydrodynamic model was applied to seven study reaches in the Colorado River within Grand Canyon to examine how operation of Glen Canyon Dam has affected availability of suitable shoreline habitat and dispersal of juvenile humpback chub (Gila cypha). Suitable shoreline habitat typically declined with increasing discharges above 226?425m3/ s, although the response varied among modelled reaches and was strongly dependent on local morphology. The area of suitable shoreline habitat over cover types that are preferred by juvenile humpback chub, however, stayed constant, and in some reaches, actually increased with discharge. In general, changes in discharge caused by impoundment tended to decrease availability...
Riparian plant communities are shaped by gradients of disturbance intensity and frequency and resource availability. Reservoir operation can alter the composition and abundance of riparian vegetation by changing the flood regime and by trapping fine sediments and associated nutrients within the reservoir system. We examined differences in herbaceous species richness, abundance and composition in Populus-Salix stands along an unregulated and regulated reach of a river in semi-arid Arizona, contrasted flood inundation frequency and edaphic conditions (soil moisture, nutrients and texture) between the reaches, and interpreted the vegetation differences in light of observed differences in environmental conditions. Flooding...