Brook trout distributional response to unconventional oil and gas development: Landscape context matters

Merriam, Eric R.; Petty, J. Todd; Maloney, Kelly O.; Young, John A.; Faulkner, Stephen P.; Slonecker, E. Terrence; Milheim, Lesley E.; Hailegiorgis, Atesmachew; Niles, Jonathan M.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.02.062

Cited by 3 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…, DeWeber and Wagner , Merriam et al. ], mining and oil and gas [Merriam et al. ], water temperature [Rice and Jastram ]) operating across broad spatial and temporal scales to alter brook trout distributions within the Chesapeake Bay watershed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…], mining and oil and gas [Merriam et al. ], water temperature [Rice and Jastram ]) operating across broad spatial and temporal scales to alter brook trout distributions within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. From a spatial perspective, we adopted the house‐neighborhood framework of Merovich et al.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…) and conventional and unconventional oil and gas development (Merriam et al. ), are common in many parts of the watershed and may have considerable impacts on brook trout within receiving systems. Historic development activities have resulted in extensive population fragmentation through creation of water quality (e.g., acid mine drainage and thermal) and physical (i.e., culverts and dams) dispersal barriers (Buonaccorsi et al.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Anthropogenic stress indices were calculated as the change in predicted occurrence following removal of the statistical effect (i.e., setting stressor values to zero) of each individual stressor (Merriam et al. ). We summed individual stress indices into an overall anthropogenic stress index (ASi) for each catchment.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…, DeWeber and Wagner , Merriam et al. ). Rising air temperatures and widespread land use development have led to increasing water temperature trends in some rivers (Rice and Jastram ), which together with altered flow regimes have begun to alter stressor dynamics and exacerbate ecological impacts of land use development (Preston , Rice and Jastram , Lee et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conservation planning at the intersection of landscape and climate change: brook trout in the Chesapeake Bay watershed

2019

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We developed a multi‐scale conservation planning framework for brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) within the Chesapeake Bay watershed that incorporates both land use and climate stressors. Our specific objectives were to (1) construct a continuous spatial model of brook trout distribution and habitat quality at the stream reach scale; (2) characterize brook trout vulnerability to climate change under a range of future climate scenarios; and (3) identify multi‐scale restoration and protection priorities for brook trout across the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Boosted regression tree analysis predicted brook trout occurrence at the stream reach scale with a high degree of accuracy (CV AUC = 0.92) as a function of both natural (e.g., water temperature and precipitation) and anthropogenic (e.g., agriculture and urban development) landscape and climatic attributes. Current land use activities result in a predicted loss of occurrence in over 11,000 stream segments (40% of suitable habitat) and account for over 15,000 km (45% of current value) of lost functional brook trout fishery value (i.e., length‐weighted occurrence probability) in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Climate change (increased ambient temperatures and altered precipitation) is projected to result in a loss of occurrence in at least 3000 additional segments (19% of current value) and at least 3000 km of functional fishery value (9% of current value) by 2062. Model outcomes were used to identify low‐ and high‐quality stream segments within relatively intact and degraded sub‐watersheds as restoration and protection priorities, respectively, and conservation priorities were targeted in watersheds with high projected resilience to climate change. Our results suggest that traditional restoration activities, such as habitat enhancement, riparian management, and barrier removal, may be able to recover a substantial amount of brook trout habitat lost to historic landscape change. However, restoration efforts must be designed within the context of expected impacts from climate change or those efforts may not produce long‐term benefits to brook trout in this region.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conservation planning at the intersection of landscape and climate change: brook trout in the Chesapeake Bay watershed

2019

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Predicting biological conditions for small headwater streams in the Chesapeake Bay watershed

et al. 2018

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A primary goal for Chesapeake Bay watershed restoration is to improve stream health and function in 10% of stream miles by 2025. Predictive spatial modeling of stream conditions, when accurate, is one method to fill gaps in monitoring coverage and estimate baseline conditions for restoration goals. Predictive modeling can also monitor progress as additional data become available. We developed a random forests model to predict biological condition of small streams (<200 km 2 in drainage) in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Biological condition was measured with the Chesapeake Bay Basin-wide Index of Biotic Integrity (Chessie BIBI), a stream macroinvertebrate index. Our goal was to predict biological condition in all unsurveyed small streams present in a 1:24,000 scale catchment layer as a 2004-2008 baseline. We reclassified the 5-category Chessie BIBI ratings into two categories, poor and fair/good, to align with management goals of the Chesapeake Bay Program. The model included 12 geospatial predictor variables including measures on spatial location, bioregion, land cover, soil, precipitation, and number of dams in local catchments. We trained the model with a random 75% subset of Chessie BIBI data (n 5 1449), and used the remaining 25% of Chessie BIBI data (n 5 484) as test data. The model performed well, correctly predicting 72% of samples in training data and 73% of samples in test data, but model accuracy varied among bioregions. We performed uncertainty analyses by adding bands of either ±0.05 or ±0.10 BIBI units to the cutoff between poor and fair/good. These uncertainty analyses resulted in 14.5% (±0.05 band) and 24.8% (±0.10 band) of samples in test data being classified as in uncertain condition. For 95,877 small stream reaches in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the model predicted 64% in fair/good condition, the ±0.05 uncertainty analyses predicted 57% in fair/good condition, and the ±0.10 uncertainty analysis predicted 50% in fair/good condition. These reported values have different implications for the number of improved stream miles required to meet the goal of improving 10%. Incorporating uncertainty provides an assessment of model strength as well as confidence in predictions. We, therefore, suggest increased reporting of uncertainty in studies that spatially predict stream conditions.

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Brook trout movement, survival and spawning redd sites in a central Wisconsin headwater stream vulnerable to low streamflow

Schleppenbach

Mohr

Raabe

2021

Ecology of Freshwater Fish

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Brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis populations inhabiting groundwater‐fed, headwater streams are sensitive to biotic and abiotic changes caused by anthropogenic actions in their native range but can be very resilient in their introduced range. Brook trout have maintained a self‐sustaining population in the Little Plover River, Wisconsin, despite fish kills during extreme low flows between 2005 and 2009 caused by groundwater pumping and limited precipitation. Increased understanding of brook trout sensitivity and resilience in headwater streams can aid restoration, conservation and eradication efforts. Therefore, we evaluated their movements, survival and spawning behaviours in the Little Plover River using a PIT antenna array (July 2016–July 2019) and spawning redd surveys (2017–2018) paired with estimated groundwater inputs. Tagged individuals often exhibited localised, nocturnal movements for most of the year. However, movements increased and shifted to a diurnal pattern with decreased photoperiod and water temperature beginning during spawning and continuing throughout winter (November–February). Spawning movements primarily (90%) occurred in the upstream direction, with consistent patterns of short (rkm <0.9, 64.8.9–70.7%), moderate (rkm =0.9 – 3.5, 20.0–30.2%) and long (rkm ≥4.5, 4.5–6.2%) distance movements across the three spawning periods. Monthly survival estimates ranged from 72.1 to 98.9% throughout the study (mean =91.5%) and were consistently lowest during winter and spring. Redd surveys indicated spawning peaked in mid‐November and redds were more concentrated in upstream reaches and in areas with higher estimated groundwater inflows in 2017 but not in 2018 when surface flows were higher. Our results increase understanding of brook trout daily and seasonal movements, monthly and seasonal survival, and spawning behaviours including relative to groundwater and surface flows in headwater streams, further informing management, conservation, and eradication efforts.

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Brook trout distributional response to unconventional oil and gas development: Landscape context matters

Cited by 3 publications

References 44 publications

Conservation planning at the intersection of landscape and climate change: brook trout in the Chesapeake Bay watershed

Conservation planning at the intersection of landscape and climate change: brook trout in the Chesapeake Bay watershed

Predicting biological conditions for small headwater streams in the Chesapeake Bay watershed

Brook trout movement, survival and spawning redd sites in a central Wisconsin headwater stream vulnerable to low streamflow

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