Mapping hydrologic alteration and ecological consequences in stream reaches of the conterminous United States.

ABSTRACT: Environmental flows are critical for balancing societal water needs with that of riverine ecosystems; however, data limitations often hinder the development of predictive relationships between anthropogenic modifications to streamflow regimes and ecological responses - these relationships are the basis for setting regional water policy standards for rivers. Herein, we present and describe a comprehensive dataset of modeled hydrologic alteration and consequences for native fish biodiversity, both mapped at the stream-reach resolution for the conterminous U.S. Using empirical observations of reference conditions and anthropogenically altered streamflow at over 7000 stream gauges, we developed a predictive model of hydrologic alteration, which was extended to >2.6 million stream reaches. We t

SUBMITTER: McManamay RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9334386 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature