Sponsor
This work was funded by Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) Project No. 2009-004-00. Contributions from TS were supported by the Ronald E. McNair Scholars Program, Portland State University.
Published In
Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-2017
Subjects
Human ecology -- History, Columbia River Watershed -- Land use -- History, Fluvial geomorphology, Water temperature -- Columbia River Watershed, Stream conservation
Abstract
Land use legacies can have a discernible influence in present-day watersheds and should be accounted for when designing conservation strategies for riverine aquatic life. We describe the environmental history of three watersheds within the Grande Ronde subbasin of the Columbia River using General Land Office survey field notes from the 19th century. In the two watersheds severely impacted by Euro-American land use, stream channel widths—a metric representing habitat simplification—increased from an average historical width of 16.8 m to an average present width of 20.8 m in large streams; 4.3 m to 5.5 m in small, confined or partly confined streams; and 3.5 m to 6.5 m in small, laterally unconfined steams. Conversely, we did not detect significant change in stream widths in an adjacent, wilderness stream with minimal human impact. Using a mechanistic water temperature model and restoration scenarios based on the historical condition, we predicted that stream restoration in the impacted watersheds could notably decrease average water temperatures—especially when channel narrowing is coupled with riparian restoration—up to a 6.6°C reduction in the upper Grande Ronde River and 3.0°C in Catherine Creek. These reductions in water temperature translated to substantial changes in the percentage of stream network habitable to salmon and steelhead migration (from 29% in the present condition to 79% in the fully restored scenario) and to core juvenile rearing (from 13% in the present condition to 36% in the fully restored scenario). We conclude that land use legacies leave an important footprint on the present landscape and are critical for understanding historic habitat-forming processes as a necessary first step towards restoration.
DOI
10.1525/elementa.192
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/24228
Citation Details
White SM, Justice C, Kelsey DA, McCullough DA, Smith T. Legacies of stream channel modification revealed using General Land Office surveys, with implications for water temperature and aquatic life. Elem Sci Anth. 2017;5:3. DOI:http://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.192
Included in
Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons
Description
Originally appeared in Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, vol. 5, no. 3, Feb. 2017. May be found at http://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.192.
Published by the University of California Press.