ConserveOnline - River Typology and Salmon Habitat, by Mark Lorang

River Typology and Salmon Habitat, by Mark Lorang

By Web Admin on 6/5/2007 | Keyword(s): Session iv: geospatial tools for estimating salmon distribution

We propose that open-channel flow in combination with a potentially mobile bed will self-organize into a Minimum-Hydro-Geomorphic-Complex (M-HG-C) linking aquatic habitat to flow hydraulics across all scales of discharge. We use the principles of specific energy and critical flow to predict Froude number caps and boundaries that describe a primary longitudinal distance, referred to as an L-1 length scale, over which fluvial-geomorphic and aquatic habitat features are coupled. We measured flow velocity profiles and water depth to determine Froude number, and thereby quantitatively discriminate L-1 length scales and associated aquatic habitats from several natural gravel-bed rivers from the Russian Kamchatka Peninsula, Alaska, and British Columbia. Using the M-HG-C foundation we classify river typology into 3 regimes that can be combined to describe all river systems. We are presently using satellite remote sensing coupled with climate and hydrologic modeling, vegetative mapping and modeling of primary production, linked to overlays of human disturbance (dams, logging, etc) to rank all river systems draining into the North Pacific Ocean in terms of potential salmonid production. These tools and approaches can lead to predictions of potential juvenile salmon escapement per river based on habitat metrics.

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