Boardman River Energy and Nutrient Dynamics
Project Title
Boardman River Energy and Nutrient Dynamics
Project Code
BREND
Project Duration
April 2022 - December 2023
Project Description
This project aims to predict the likely locations and strengths of fish subsidies after FishPass becomes operational through tracking the spatial distributions of longnose sucker Catostomus catostomus translocated above Union St. Dam (n=110) and white sucker Catostomus commersonii both translocated above Union St. Dam (n=110) and resident populations within Boardman Lake (n=50). The work directly supports ongoing research aimed at predicting whether native migratory fishes currently blocked from migration will increase ecosystem productivity in the upper Boardman River via the delivery of material subsidies (energy and nutrients). For the contribution of material subsidies to significantly increase productivity in a system, the delivery of those subsidies must be large relative to the background availability of resources for production. For such subsidies to be observable, natural tracer signals (stable isotopes of C, N, and S) must differ between recipient and donor habitats. The estimation and observation of nutrient subsidy effects are thus highly system-specific, dependent on spatial variation in tracers, nutrients, ecosystem processing rates, and food web interactions. Our work aims to quantify spatial variation in habitat, nutrient availability, isotopic baselines, and food-web interactions; temporal dynamics of migratory fish nutrient pulses; and correlation of nutrient limitation and carbon processing with landscape context.
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Funding