Modelling the impacts of climate change on riverine thermal regimes in western Canada's largest Pacific watershed.

ABSTRACT: Quantification of climate change impacts on the thermal regimes of rivers in British Columbia (BC) is crucial given their importance to aquatic ecosystems. Using the Air2Stream model, we investigate the impact of both air temperature and streamflow changes on river water temperatures from 1950 to 2015 across BC's 234,000 km² Fraser River Basin (FRB). Model results show the FRB's summer water temperatures rose by nearly 1.0 °C during 1950-2015 with 0.47 °C spread across 17 river sites. For most of these sites, such increases in average summer water temperature have doubled the number of days exceeding 20 °C, the water temperature that, if exceeded, potentially increases the physiological stress of salmon during migration. Furthermore, river sites, especially those in the upper an

SUBMITTER: Islam SU 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6684650 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature