Ecosystem ecology meets adaptive management: food web response to a controlled flood on the Colorado River, Glen Canyon

2011 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 2016-2033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wyatt F. Cross ◽  
Colden V. Baxter ◽  
Kevin C. Donner ◽  
Emma J. Rosi-Marshall ◽  
Theodore A. Kennedy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Web ◽  
Adaptive Management ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
Ecosystem Ecology ◽  
Glen Canyon ◽  
Controlled Flood

Macroinvertebrate diets reflect tributary inputs and turbidity-driven changes in food availability in the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam

2013 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 397-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly A. Wellard Kelly ◽  
Emma J. Rosi-Marshall ◽  
Theodore A. Kennedy ◽  
Robert O. Hall ◽  
Wyatt F. Cross ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Availability ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
Glen Canyon Dam ◽  
Glen Canyon

scholarly journals Body Condition of Endangered Humpback Chub in Relation to Temperature and Discharge in the Lower Colorado River

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 333-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
Forest P. Hayes ◽  
Michael J. Dodrill ◽  
Brandon S. Gerig ◽  
Colton Finch ◽  
William E. Pine III
Keyword(s):  
Colorado River ◽  
Grand Canyon ◽  
Management Program ◽  
Parameter Estimates ◽  
Water Release ◽  
Fish Removal ◽  
Glen Canyon Dam ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Humpback Chub ◽  
Glen Canyon

Abstract Determining the population status of endangered Humpback Chub Gila cypha is a major component of the adaptive management program designed to inform operation of Glen Canyon Dam upstream from Grand Canyon, Arizona. In recent decades, resource managers have identified a portfolio of management actions (with intermittent implementation) to promote population recovery of Humpback Chub, including nonnative fish removal, changes in water release volumes and discharge ramping schedules, and reductions in hydropower peaking operations. The Humpback Chub population in Grand Canyon has increased over this same period, causal factors for which are unclear. We took advantage of unusual hydrology in the Colorado River basin in 2011 to assess trends in juvenile Humpback Chub length–weight relationships and condition in the Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam as well as in the unregulated Little Colorado River. Within each river, we observed higher length–weight b-parameter estimates (exponent of the standard power equation) at higher water temperatures. We also found higher slope estimates for the length–weight relationship at higher temperatures in the Little Colorado River. Slope estimates were more variable in the Colorado River, where mean water temperatures were more uniform. The next step is to examine whether Humpback Chub length–weight relationships influence population metrics such as abundance or survival. If these relationships exist, then monitoring condition in juvenile Humpback Chub would provide a quick and low-cost technique for assessing population response to planned management experiments or changing environmental conditions.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document