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Developing precipitation- and groundwater-corrected stream temperature models to improve brook charr management amid climate change

  • CHARR III
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Abstract

Conserving coldwater stream ecosystems in a warming world requires understanding how water temperature changes will affect the sustainability of coldwater fish populations such as brook charr (Salvelinus fontinalis). To date, many models for predicting stream temperature have either assumed spatially uniform (inaccurate) air-stream temperature relationships or required expensive measurement of hydrometeorological drivers (e.g., solar radiation, convection) in a manner impractical for fisheries management. Hence, we developed an accurate, cost-effective, management-relevant modeling approach for projecting how changes in air temperature, precipitation, and groundwater inputs will affect coldwater stream temperatures and brook charr survival and growth in Michigan, USA. Precipitation- and groundwater-corrected models predicted stream temperatures more accurately than air-stream temperature models. Projected stream warming intensified in proportion to simulated air temperature warming and was most extreme in surface runoff-dominated streams with limited groundwater-driven thermal buffering. However, groundwater-dominated streams will not invariably provide sufficient coldwater habitats for brook charr survival and growth if groundwater temperatures increase or groundwater inputs decline due to reduced precipitation. Amid resource limitations, fisheries managers can use the stream temperature modeling approach described herein to predict effects of climate change on brook charr survival and growth and take actions to facilitate their sustainability in riverine systems.

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Acknowledgements

The lead author thanks Bruce Vondracek (emeritus USGS Minnesota Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Minnesota) for inspiring him to become a fisheries scientist. We thank the Editors and Reviewers for helpful comments that improved this manuscript. We thank Jennifer Moore Myers (United States Forest Service Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center) and Stacy Nelson and Ernie Hain (North Carolina State University) for assisting with air temperature data acquisition and projection models. We thank Kyle Herreman and Wesley Daniel (Michigan State University [MSU]); Troy Zorn, Tracy Kolb, and Todd Wills (Michigan Department of Natural Resources); and Henry Quinlan (United States Fish and Wildlife Service) for assisting in procurement of environmental and brook charr population data for this study. Further, we acknowledge the Programme for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison (PCMDI) and the WCRP’s Working Group on Coupled Modelling for their helpful guidance regarding use of the WCRP CMIP3 multimodel data set. We especially wish to thank Than Hitt (United States Geological Survey) for thought-provoking discussion at the 2015 conference “Advances in the Population Ecology of Stream Salmonids IV” that informed development of this paper. The first author thanks the many donors and funding sources that made it possible to conduct the research leading to this paper, including the University Distinguished Fellowship (MSU), the MSU Graduate School, the MSU Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, the Robert C. Ball and Betty A. Ball Fisheries and Wildlife Fellowship (MSU), the Schrems West Michigan Chapter of Trout Unlimited Fellowship, the Red Cedar Fly Fishers Graduate Fellowship, and the Fly Fishers International Conservation Scholarship.

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  1. Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan State University, 115 Manly Miles Building, 1405 South Harrison Road, East Lansing, MI, 48823, USA

    Andrew K. Carlson, William W. Taylor & Dana M. Infante

  2. Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Andrew K. Carlson & William W. Taylor

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  1. Andrew K. Carlson
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Carlson, A.K., Taylor, W.W. & Infante, D.M. Developing precipitation- and groundwater-corrected stream temperature models to improve brook charr management amid climate change. Hydrobiologia 840, 379–398 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-019-03989-1

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