Modeling the spatial and temporal dynamics of soil temperature is deterministically complex due to the wide variability of several influential environmental variables, including soil column composition, soil moisture, air temperature, and solar energy. Landscape incident solar radiation is a significant environmental driver that affects both air temperature and ground-level soil energy loading; therefore, inclusion of solar energy is important for generating accurate representations of soil temperature. We used the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Oregon Crest-to-Coast (O’CCMoN) Environmental Monitoring Transect dataset to develop and test the inclusion of ground-level solar energy driver data within an existing soil temperature model currently utilized within an ecohydrology model called Visualizing Ecosystem Land Management Assessments (VELMA). The O’CCMoN site data elucidate how localized ground-level solar energy between open and forested landscapes greatly influence the resulting soil temperature. We demonstrate how the inclusion of local ground-level solar energy significantly improves the ability to deterministically model soil temperature at two depths. These results suggest that landscape and watershed-scale models should incorporate spatially distributed solar energy to improve spatial and temporal simulations of soil temperature.

Low Impact Development (LID) is an alternative to conventional urban stormwater management practices, which aims at mitigating the impacts of urbanization on water quantity and quality. Plot and local scale studies provide evidence of LID effectiveness; however, little is known about the overall watershed scale influence of LID practices. This is particularly true in watersheds with a land cover that is more diverse than that of urban or suburban classifications alone. We address this watershed-scale gap by assessing the effects of three common LID practices (rain gardens, permeable pavement, and riparian buffers) on the hydrology of a 0.94 km 2 mixed land cover watershed. We used a spatially-explicit ecohydrological model, called Visualizing Ecosystems for Land Management Assessments (VELMA), to compare changes in watershed hydrologic responses before and after the implementation of LID practices. For the LID scenarios, we examined different spatial configurations, using 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% implementation extents, to convert sidewalks into rain gardens, and parking lots and driveways into permeable pavement. We further applied 20 m and 40 m riparian buffers along streams that were adjacent to agricultural land cover. The results showed overall increases in shallow subsurface runoff and infiltration, as well as evapotranspiration, and decreases in peak flows and surface runoff across all types and configurations of LID. Among individual LID practices, rain gardens had the greatest influence on each component of the overall watershed water balance. As anticipated, the combination of LID practices at the highest implementation level resulted in the most substantial changes to the overall watershed hydrology. It is notable that all hydrological changes from the LID implementation, ranging from 0.01 to 0.06 km 2 across the study watershed, were modest, which suggests a potentially limited efficacy of LID practices in mixed land cover watersheds.

Decision-support tools (DSTs) are often produced from collaborations between technical experts and stakeholders to address environmental problems and inform decision making. Studies in the past two decades have provided key insights on the use of DSTs and the importance of bidirectional information flows among technical experts and stakeholders-a process that is variously referred to as co-production, participatory modeling, structured decision making, or simply stakeholder participation. Many of these studies have elicited foundational insights for the broad field of water resources management; however, questions remain on approaches for balancing co-production with uncertainty specifically for watershed modeling decision support tools. In this paper, we outline a simple conceptual model that focuses on the DST development process. Then, using watershed modeling case studies found in the literature, we discuss *

The importance of thermal refuges in a rapidly warming world is particularly evident for migratory species, where individuals encounter a wide range of conditions throughout their lives. In this study, we used a spatially explicit, individual‐based simulation model to evaluate the buffering potential of cold‐water thermal refuges for anadromous salmon and trout (Oncorhynchus spp.) migrating upstream through a warm river corridor that can expose individuals to physiologically stressful temperatures. We considered upstream migration in relation to migratory phenotypes that were defined in terms of migration timing, spawn timing, swim speed, and use of cold‐water thermal refuges. Individuals with different migratory phenotypes migrated upstream through riverine corridors with variable availability of cold‐water thermal refuges and mainstem temperatures. Use of cold‐water refuges (CWRs) decreased accumulated sublethal exposures to physiologically stressful temperatures when measured in degree‐days above 20, 21, and 22°C. The availability of CWRs was an order of magnitude more effective in lowering accumulated sublethal exposures under current and future mainstem temperatures for summer steelhead than fall Chinook Salmon. We considered two emergent model outcomes, survival and percent of available energy used, in relation to thermal heterogeneity and migratory phenotype. Mean percent energy loss attributed to future warmer mainstem temperatures was at least two times larger than the difference in energy used in simulations without CWRs for steelhead and salmon. We also found that loss of CWRs reduced the diversity of energy‐conserving migratory phenotypes when we examined the variability in entry timing and travel time outside of CWRs in relation to energy loss. Energy‐conserving phenotypic space contracted by 7%–23% when CWRs were unavailable under the current thermal regime. Our simulations suggest that, while CWRs do not entirely mitigate for stressful thermal exposures in mainstem rivers, these features are important for maintaining a diversity of migration phenotypes. Our study suggests that the maintenance of diverse portfolios of migratory phenotypes and cool‐ and cold‐water refuges might be added to the suite of policies and management actions presently being deployed to improve the likelihood of Pacific salmonid persistence into a future characterized by climate change.