Process,Policy, and Implementation of Pool‐Wide Drawdowns on the Upper Mississippi River: A Promising Approach for Ecological Restoration of Large Impounded Rivers

The Upper Mississippi River (UMR) has been developed and subsequently managed for commercial navigation by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The navigation pools created by a series of lock and dams initially provided a complex of aquatic habitats that supported a variety of fish and wildlife. However, biological productivity declined as the pools aged. The River Resources Forum, an advisory body to the St. Paul District of the USACE, established a multiagency Water Level Management Task Force (WLMTF) to evaluate the potential of water level management to improve ecological function and restore the distribution and abundance of fish and wildlife habitat. The WLMTF identified several water level management options and concluded that summer growing season drawdowns at the pool scale offered the greatest potential to provide habitat benefits over a large area. Here we summarize the process followed to plan and implement pool‐wide drawdowns on the UMR, including involvement of stakeholders in decision making, addressing requirements to modify reservoir operating plans, development and evaluation of drawdown alternatives, pool selection, establishment of a monitoring plan, interagency coordination, and a public information campaign. Three pool‐wide drawdowns were implemented within the St. Paul District and deemed successful in providing ecological benefits without adversely affecting commercial navigation and recreational use of the pools. Insights are provided based on more than 17 years of experience in planning and implementing drawdowns on the UMR. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

黄河下游支流大汶河鱼类多样性及影响因子分析

为了解黄河下游支流大汶河鱼类多样性及其与环境因子的关系,分别于2017年4月和10月对大汶河24个采样点进行鱼类及环境调查,采用冗余分析方法识别了影响大汶河鱼类个体数量和多样性指数的主要环境因子。结果表明:2017年共采集到鱼类8 299尾,隶属于4目16科25种,其中鲤科鱼类共15种;鱼类多样性和均匀性较差,优势种以鲫(Carassius auratus)、(Hemiculter leucisclus)和乌鳢(Channa argus)等耐受性较强的平原性鱼类为主;大汶河鱼类物种数量、生物量和多样性指数的季节性变化不显著,但是秋季个体数量显著大于春季;影响大汶河鱼类个体数量的主要环境因子是水深和河宽,而影响鱼类多样性指数的主要环境因子是DO。     

Economic analysis of water temperature reduction practices in a large river floodplain: an exploratory study of the Willamette River,Oregon

This paper examines ecosystem restoration practices that focus on water temperature reductions in the upper mainstem Willamette River, Oregon, for the benefit of endangered salmonids and other native cold‐water species. The analysis integrates hydrologic, natural science and economic models to determine the cost‐effectiveness of alternative water temperature reduction strategies. A temperature model is used to simulate the effects of combinations of upstream riparian shading and flow augmentations on downstream water temperatures. Costs associated with these strategies are estimated and consist of the opportunity costs of lost agricultural production and recreation opportunities due to flow releases from an up‐stream reservoir. Temperature reductions from another strategy, hyporheic flow enhancement, are also examined. Restoration strategies associated with enhanced hyporheic cooling consist of removal/reconnection of current obstacles to the creation of dynamic river channel complexity. The observed reduction of summer water temperatures associated with enhanced channel complexity indicates that restoring hyporheic flow processes is more likely to achieve cost‐effective temperature reductions and meet the total maximum daily load (TMDL) target than conventional approaches that rely on increased riparian shading or/and combinations of flow augmentation. Although the costs associated with the hyporheic flow enhancement approach are substantial, the effects of such a long‐term ecological improvement of the floodplain are expected to assist the recovery of salmonid populations and provide ancillary benefits to society. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Hydrosedimentary classification of natural and engineered backwaters of a large river,the lower Rhône: possible applications for the maintenance of high fish biodiversity

At the end of the last century, the shorelines of the Lower River Rhône were embanked and submersible dikes were built in the main channel, delimiting dike fields. We compared the morphological, hydrological and sedimentary variables of nine dike fields, four sites in dead arms and one in the main channel, in order to describe the fluviosedimentary functioning and to produce a classification of these different natural and engineered backwaters. Within these ‘artificial floodplains’, the different types of backwaters and their long-term changes bear a strong similarity to those observed within a natural floodplain. The long-term frequency of submersion by the water of the main river channel is the first factor that controls the erosion and sedimentation within the different backwaters. Three types of site can be distinguished: the lotic sites are the main channel and one dike field, five dike fields comprise the semi-lotic sites and the cluster lentic sites include the three remaining dike fields and the four dead arms sites. These three groups also differ in their riparian habitats and in their juvenile fish assemblages. As juvenile fish were most abundant in the semi-lotic dike fields, the use of such structures can be envisaged in order to restore high fish diversity in rivers where the former floodplain has disappeared or is no longer accessible to fish because of human modifications. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.