Adaptive Management of Flows in a Regulated River: Flow-ecology Relationships Revealed by a 26-year, Five-treatment Flow Experiment.

ABSTRACT: Adaptive management (AM) is often proposed as a means to resolve uncertainty in the management of socio-ecological systems but successful implementation of AM is rare. We report results from a 26 year, five-treatment, AM experiment designed to inform decision makers about the response of juvenile salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.) to flow releases from a dam on the regulated Bridge River, British Columbia, Canada. Treatments consisted of a baseline (no dam release) and four different dam release regimes that followed a semi-natural hydrograph but varied in the magnitude of spring-summer freshet flows. We found total salmonid biomass was highest at the lowest flow release, and decreased with increasing flow, consistent with a priori predictions made by an expert solicitation process. Species-spe

SUBMITTER: Bradford MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9892159 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature