EBTJV

Brook Trout Climate Resilience Research: Research on climate change relevant to brook trout
Located in Science and Data
Can brook trout survive climate change in large rivers? If it rains - Merriam et al. 2017: Brook trout habitat vulnerability was assessed within an Appalachian watershed. • Increased discharge largely offset effects of increased air temperature. • No consistent loss of suitable brook trout habitat by end of 21st century • However, periods of low flow resulted in a loss of habitat at the network-scale. • Persistence of refugia below tributaries should enable metapopulation persistence.
Located in Science and Data / Brook Trout Related Publications
Climate change influence on brook trout populations in the Central Appalachians - Andrew et al. 2022: We used a 18-year brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) data set with samples across a ~4800 km2 spatial area in the Central Appalachian Mountains, combined with PRISM climate data at the HUC-12 subwatershed level to investigate temporal trends of each. his work provides long-term evidence to help understand the dynamics of these sentinel headwater fish populations as they experience a changing climate.
Located in Science and Data / Brook Trout Related Publications
Conservation planning at the intersection of landscape and climate change: brook trout in the Chesapeake Bay watershed: We developed a multi-scale conservation planning framework for brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) within the Chesapeake Bay watershed that incorporates both land use and climate stressors. Our specific objectives were to (1) construct a continuous spatial model of brook trout distribution and habitat quality at the stream reach scale; (2) characterize brook trout vulnerability to climate change under a range of future climate scenarios; and (3) identify multi-scale restoration and protection priorities for brook trout across the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Boosted regression tree analysis predicted brook trout occurrence at the stream reach scale with a high degree of accuracy (CV AUC = 0.92) as a function of both natural (e.g., water temperature and precipitation) and anthropogenic (e.g., agriculture and urban development) landscape and climatic attributes. Current land use activities result in a predicted loss of occurrence in over 11,000 stream segments (40% of suitable habitat) and account for over 15,000 km (45% of current value) of lost functional brook trout fishery value (i.e., length-weighted occurrence probability) in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Climate change (increased ambient temperatures and altered precipitation) is projected to result in a loss of occurrence in at least 3000 additional segments (19% of current value) and at least 3000 km of functional fishery value (9% of current value) by 2062. Model outcomes were used to identify low- and high-quality stream segments within relatively intact and degraded sub-watersheds as restoration and protection priorities, respectively, and conservation priorities were targeted in watersheds with high projected resilience to climate change. Our results suggest that traditional restoration activities, such as habitat enhancement, riparian management, and barrier removal, may be able to recover a substantial amount of brook trout habitat lost to historic landscape change. However, restoration efforts must be designed within the context of expected impacts from climate change or those efforts may not produce long-term benefits to brook trout in this region.
Located in Science and Data / Brook Trout Related Publications
From the Field: Tagged brook trout reveal the pristine health of Maryland’s Savage River: April 2012: Follow biologists as they track native brook trout in western Maryland's Savage River, and learn why these fish are used to monitor the health of the freshwater streams that flow to the Chesapeake Bay.
Located in The Story of Wild Brook Trout / Brook Trout Video and Webinar Gallery
Matt Kulp talks about restoration projects: Video of Matt Kulp, Supervisory fishery biologist with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and EBTJV steering committee member, presenting a summary of brook trout restoration efforts to date. Presentation was given at the 2022 annual meeting of EBTJV at the National Conservation Training Center in Shepherdstown, WV and virtually. "Restoration of Brook Trout across Their Native Range Using Fish Toxicants and Electrofishing: Are We Successful Ecologically and Socially?"
Located in News & Events / Videos
New review of genetic rescue: Is now the time? Shannon White, Jacob Rash, and David Kazyak review the application of genetic rescue to brook trout conservation.
Located in News & Events / News Inbox
Restoration of brook trout across their native range using fish toxicants and electrofishing: are we successful ecologically and socially?: PDF of PowerPoint presentation by Matt Kulp, fishery biologist with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and coauthors, reviewing historic and contemporary restoration efforts to restore brook trout using toxicants and electrofishing. Matt surveyed state and agency biologists about projects to remove invasive species and replace brook trout. This presentation and associated database describe the outcomes and factors in success and failures.
Located in Science and Data / Brook Trout Related Publications
Seasonal streamflow extremes are key drivers of Brook Trout young-of-the-year abundance: Based on counts of Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) collected over 28 yr at 115 sites in Shenandoah National Park, we developed mixed-effects models to (1) assess how well extreme streamflow, as compared to mean flows and total precipitation, can explain young-of-the-year (YOY) abundance, (2) identify potential nonlinear relationships between seasonal environmental covariates and abundance using nonlinear generalized additive mixed models, and (3) explore likely impacts of expected future weather and streamflow conditions.
Located in Science and Data / Brook Trout Related Publications
See our videos from the recent EBTJV annual meeting!: in April 2022 EBTJV had a membership meeting at NCTC. Videos are now on YouTube.
Located in News & Events / News Inbox

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