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Fish navigation of large dams emerges from their modulation of flow field experience.

ABSTRACT: Navigating obstacles is innate to fish in rivers, but fragmentation of the world's rivers by more than 50,000 large dams threatens many of the fish migrations these waterways support. One limitation to mitigating the impacts of dams on fish is that we have a poor understanding of why some fish enter routes engineered for their safe travel around the dam but others pass through more dangerous routes. To understand fish movement through hydropower dam environments, we combine a computational fluid dynamics model of the flow field at a dam and a behavioral model in which simulated fish adjust swim orientation and speed to modulate their experience to water acceleration and pressure (depth). We fit the model to data on the passage of juvenile Pacific salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.) at seven dams in the Columbia/Snake River system. Our findings from reproducing observed fish movement and passage patterns across 47 flow field conditions sampled over 14 y emphasize the role of experience and perception in the decision making of animals that can inform opportunities and limitations in living resources management and engineering design.

SUBMITTER: Goodwin RA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3986144 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Fish navigation of large dams emerges from their modulation of flow field experience.

Goodwin R Andrew RA Politano Marcela M Garvin Justin W JW Nestler John M JM Hay Duncan D Anderson James J JJ Weber Larry J LJ Dimperio Eric E Smith David L DL Timko Mark M

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20140324 14

Navigating obstacles is innate to fish in rivers, but fragmentation of the world's rivers by more than 50,000 large dams threatens many of the fish migrations these waterways support. One limitation to mitigating the impacts of dams on fish is that we have a poor understanding of why some fish enter routes engineered for their safe travel around the dam but others pass through more dangerous routes. To understand fish movement through hydropower dam environments, we combine a computational fluid ...[more]

PMID: 24706826

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Project description:Beavers can profoundly alter riparian environments, most conspicuously by creating dams and wetlands. Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) populations are increasing and it has been suggested they could play a role in the provision of multiple ecosystem services, including natural flood management. Research at different scales, in contrasting ecosystems is required to establish to what extent beavers can impact on flood regimes. Therefore, this study determines whether flow regimes and flow responses to storm events were altered following the building of beaver dams and whether a flow attenuation effect could be significantly attributed to beaver activity. Four sites were monitored where beavers have been reintroduced in England. Continuous monitoring of hydrology, before and after beaver impacts, was undertaken on streams where beavers built sequences of dams. Stream orders ranged from 2nd to 4th, in both agricultural and forest-dominated catchments. Analysis of >1000 storm events, across four sites showed an overall trend of reduced total stormflow, increased peak rainfall to peak flow lag times and reduced peak flows, all suggesting flow attenuation, following beaver impacts. Additionally, reduced high flow to low flow ratios indicated that flow regimes were overall becoming less "flashy" following beaver reintroduction. Statistical analysis, showed the effect of beaver to be statistically significant in reducing peak flows with estimated overall reductions in peak flows from -0.359 to -0.065 m3 s-1 across sites. Analysis showed spatial and temporal variability in the hydrological response to beaver between sites, depending on the level of impact and seasonality. Critically, the effect of beavers in reducing peak flows persists for the largest storms monitored, showing that even in wet conditions, beaver dams can attenuate average flood flows by up to ca. 60%. This research indicates that beavers could play a role in delivering natural flood management.

Project description:Across Eurasia and North America, beaver (Castor spp), their dams and their human-built analogues are becoming increasingly common restoration tools to facilitate recovery of streams and wetlands, providing a natural and cost-effective means of restoring dynamic fluvial ecosystems. Although the use of beaver ponds by numerous fish and wildlife species is well documented, debate continues as to the benefits of beaver dams, primarily because dams are perceived as barriers to fish movement, particularly migratory species such as salmonids. In this study, through a series of field experiments, we tested the ability of juvenile salmonids to cross constructed beaver dams (aka beaver dam analogues). Two species, coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) and steelhead trout (O. mykiss), were tracked using passive integrated transponder tags (PIT tags) as they crossed constructed beaver dam analogues. We found that when we tagged and moved these fishes from immediately upstream of the dams to immediately downstream of them, most were detected upstream within 36 hours of displacement. By the end of a 21-day field experiment, 91% of the displaced juvenile coho and 54% of the juvenile steelhead trout were detected on antennas upstream of the dams. In contrast, during the final week of the 21-day experiment, just 1 of 158 coho salmon and 6 of 40 (15%) of the steelhead trout were still detected on antennas in the release pool below the dams. A similar but shorter 4-day pilot experiment with only steelhead trout produced similar results. In contrast, in a non-displacement experiment, juveniles of both species that were captured, tagged and released in a pool 50 m below the dams showed little inclination to move upstream. Further, by measuring hydraulic conditions at the major flowpaths over and around the dams, we provide insight into low-flow conditions under which juvenile salmonids are able to cross these constructed beaver dams, and that multiple types of flowpaths may be beneficial towards assisting fish movement past instream restoration structures. Finally, we compared estimates of the number of juvenile salmonids using the pond habitat upstream of the dam relative to the number that the dam may have prevented from moving upstream. Upstream of the dams we found an abundance of juvenile salmonids and a several orders of magnitude difference in favor of the number of juveniles using the pond habitat upstream of the dam. In sum, our study suggests beaver dams, BDAs, and other channel spanning habitat features should be preserved and restored rather than removed as perceived obstructions to fish passage.

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Fish navigation of large dams emerges from their modulation of flow field experience.

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Fish navigation of large dams emerges from their modulation of flow field experience.

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