Using regional flow classes as references to analyse flow regime anomalies across a set of regulated Canadian rivers

McLaughlin, Fraser; Lapointe, Martine-Emmanuelle; Bourque, Guillaume; Boisclair, Daniel

doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2014.07.015

Cited by 10 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…All flow indices described by McLaughlin et al . (), in addition to those created to capture hourly variations in the flow record (Zimmerman et al ., ; Macnaughton et al ., ), were calculated for each of the rivers surveyed for a total of 211 flow indices. Flow indices expressed as discharge units (volume per time) were normalised by dividing these indices by the median flow (daily or hourly as appropriate) for the available flow records (McManamay et al ., ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using fish guilds to assess community responses to temperature and flow regimes in unregulated and regulated Canadian rivers

et al. 2016

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Summary Hydropower currently accounts for 63% of Canada's total electricity generation and is bound to increase with the energy demands of a growing population. With damming and flow regulation known as major threats to aquatic biodiversity and river and floodplain habitats, an improved understanding of the specific impacts of river regulation is needed for the proper management of these systems. Although interactions among river flow and thermal regimes have been described in the literature, their concurrent influence on fish guild responses has yet to be analysed for temperate rivers. Such an analysis may be used to identify the ecological traits linked with the flow and thermal variables reflecting river regulation. Extensive field surveys were conducted across 25 unregulated and regulated rivers to estimate fish species density and biomass. Fish guild models were developed to characterise morphologic, trophic, reproductive, habitat preferences and behavioural traits, as well as phylogenetic associations. To characterise ecologically relevant components of the flow and thermal regimes of rivers, we calculated indices based on the magnitude, frequency, duration, timing and rate of change in each driver. Model relationships between fish biomass and density estimates were then run using redundancy analyses (RDA) on each type of guild and dominant patterns of flow and thermal variability. Variables representing the magnitude of summer temperatures and intra‐annual flow variability were consistently selected as independent drivers of fish guild responses (>86% of RDA models), clearly showing the importance of integrating thermal regimes in current river hydro‐ecological studies. Fish guild density and biomass were significantly explained (R2Adj = 25–44%) and predicted (R2CV = 35–76%) by flow and thermal variables characterising regimes across unregulated and regulated rivers, whereas total fish density and biomass were not. Fish guild models based on trait–environmental relationships performed better than those based on phylogeny. Our results also showed that the models describing habitat and trophic guilds had the greatest explanatory power (R2Adj = 0.44 and R2Adj = 0.41 respectively). This study identified differences in guild trait–environment relationships across rivers and the guilds most susceptible to changes in flow and temperature conditions resulting from river regulation. In particular, more constant summer temperatures and lower flow variability favoured habitat and trophic guilds over morphologic, reproductive and behavioural guilds. Our results showed that maintaining particular aspects of the flow and thermal regime may be important for ensuring the presence of certain guilds in temperate rivers.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using fish guilds to assess community responses to temperature and flow regimes in unregulated and regulated Canadian rivers

et al. 2016

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“…Hydro‐peaking type systems were defined as exhibiting frequent periods of significant hourly or diel hydrologic fluctuations over a year caused by rapid opening and closing of reservoir release structures (Cushman, ; Flodmark et al , ). Precise, quantitative thresholds distinguishing these regulation types are not internationally accepted, so we assigned ‘types’ to our rivers based on preliminary analyses of the regulated hydrographs (after McLaughlin et al , ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Regional Hydrologic Alteration on Fish Community Structure in Regulated Rivers

Macnaughton

McLaughlin

Bourque

et al. 2015

River Research & Apps

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Alterations to temporal patterns of river flow regimes resulting from damming and flow regulation practices may have negative consequences for freshwater communities. However, little has been performed to develop a holistic approach to assess the effects of hydrologic alterations on fish communities across a wide range of rivers and between different regulation strategies. To address this, we used daily and hourly hydrologic data from gauges in 10 regulated and 14 unregulated Canadian rivers. Building on the Ecological Limits of Hydrologic Alteration concept, hydrologic alterations for many ecologically relevant flow indices were combined to obtain river‐specific hydrologic alteration scores. Extensive community surveys to estimate fish abundance, biomass, diversity indices and habitat guild representation provided data for the derivation of similar river‐specific biotic alteration scores relative to unregulated river conditions. Our results indicate that biological impairment consisting of significant biotic alteration relative to the means from unregulated rivers was directly related to increasing flow alteration scores, with the smallest fish and flow alteration scores observed in run‐of‐river systems and the greatest alteration scores under hydro‐peaking regimes. Our approach not only examined the relationship between river‐specific hydrologic alteration scores and the associated biotic responses, but also provided a more comprehensive assessment of the flow‐response alteration relationship between regulation practices, which may better inform future environmental flow management guidelines. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…Flow regime is typically described using hydrological indices representing five flow components (i.e., magnitude, frequency, duration, timing, and rate of change; Poff et al 1997) that can be quantified at various temporal scales (Richter et al 1996;Poff et al 1997;Zimmerman et al 2010). Hydrological indices are used for classifying rivers (Poff and Allan 1995;McMahon et al 2007;McLaughlin et al 2014), measuring flow alteration (Richter et al 1996;Nislow et al 2002;Mathews and Richter 2007;Macnaughton et al 2015), and assessing the influence of flow regime on ecological processes and community attributes (Poff and Allan 1995;Kennard et al 2010). For instance, short-term variation of flow can cause fish stranding mortality (Cushman 1985;Bradford et al 1995;Young et al 2011) and downstream displacement (Jeffries et al 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, hydropower generation can be achieved by using run-of-the-river (ROR), storage, or peaking facilities, each of which potentially poses a different suite of effects on specific hydrological indices and fish community attributes in river segments downstream from such facilities (McLaughlin et al 2014). ROR facilities typically consist of a small reservoir where water freely flows through turbines generally producing little or no effects on the downstream flow regime (Bratrich et al 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Peaking facilities are composed of a large reservoir and provoke frequent (sometimes once or twice daily), rapid (within minutes), and important (flow increased up to 300 % in 1 h) fluctuations of downstream flow regime caused by the operation of dam release structures (Cushman 1985;Flodmark et al 2004). The variability in the type and severity of flow modifications observed across regulation types further complicates the task of quantifying the ecological effects of flow regulation on fish community attributes (Richter et al 1996;Magilligan and Nislow 2005;McLaughlin et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of river scale flow regimes and local scale habitat properties on fish community attributes

et al. 2016

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Community attributes result from processes operating at various spatial scales. The hierarchic organisation of rivers and the prevailing hypotheses about the variables that affect fish communities make lotic ecosystems particularly suitable to study processes taking place across spatial scales. The general goal of this study was to investigate how river flow regime and local habitat properties explain and predict fish community attributes in unregulated and regulated rivers. Our objectives were: (1) to identify the hydrological indices that best describe the flow regimes of river segments subjected to different regulation types (unregulated, run-of-the-river, storage, and peaking), and; (2) to estimate the relative importance of hydrological indices (river scale), and water depth, water velocity, and substrate composition (local scale) in explaining and predicting local fish community attributes (species richness, total density, and total biomass). We surveyed 880 sites (*300 m 2 ) in 25 rivers (14 unregulated and 11 regulated) located in six physiographic regions of Canada. Based on a discriminant function analysis, nine hydrological indices were selected to represent river flow regime. Models of fish community attributes were developed using linear mixed-models (LMM) by nesting sites within rivers and regions. A few hydrological indices along with habitat properties predicted fish community attributes at the site scale (0.43\ cross-validation R 2 CV \0:66). Specific hydrological indices and local habitat properties can be managed to preserve fish community attributes in regulated rivers. Combining variables associated with different scales in a LMM was a powerful and efficient way to model fish community attributes and produced reliable predictive models.

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Using regional flow classes as references to analyse flow regime anomalies across a set of regulated Canadian rivers

Cited by 10 publications

References 43 publications

Using fish guilds to assess community responses to temperature and flow regimes in unregulated and regulated Canadian rivers

Using fish guilds to assess community responses to temperature and flow regimes in unregulated and regulated Canadian rivers

The Effects of Regional Hydrologic Alteration on Fish Community Structure in Regulated Rivers

Effects of river scale flow regimes and local scale habitat properties on fish community attributes

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