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Cook Inletkeeper
Stream Temperature Monitoring Network
BACKGROUND
The Cook Inlet watershed is the
most populated and fastest-growing region in Alaska; it is also
home to the state’s renowned wild salmon runs that are at
greatest risk to the effects of climate and land-use change.
For the past five years, Cook Inletkeeper has documented warming
trends in local salmon streams, with summer temperatures
routinely exceeding state water quality standards established to
protect spawning and migrating fish. Fisheries scientists warn
that high stream temperatures make fish increasingly vulnerable
to pollution, predation and disease. Yet despite the
association between warming water temperatures and reduced
salmonid survivorship - there is little or no consistent,
long-term temperature data for salmon streams in Alaska.
Without such basic information, it is impossible to gauge the
health of Cook Inlet’s salmon habitats and resources, and
equally difficult to develop management responses to improve
watershed resiliency to climate change.
INLETKEEPER STRATEGIES
Cook Inletkeeper is developing
the Stream Temperature Monitoring Network to build the
science-based knowledge needed to identify thermal impacts in
Alaska’s coastal salmon habitat. The Stream Temperature
Monitoring Network for Cook Inlet will 1) collect consistent,
comparable temperature data for Cook Inlet’s salmon streams; 2)
increase our understanding of the rate of rising stream
temperatures and areas of maximum exceedances throughout the
basin; and 3) provide the knowledge and data needed to
prioritize sites for future research, protection and restoration
actions.
In 2007, Cook Inletkeeper began
laying the groundwork for the Network by spearheading a novel
effort to create a standardized water temperature monitoring
protocol for Cook Inlet, which will be easily transferable to
other watersheds in Alaska.
Water
Temperature Data Logger Protocol for Cook Inlet Salmon Streams
includes a detailed description of methods, equipment needed,
and instructions on how to deploy data loggers in the field, how
to program and download data, and how to perform maintenance and
quality assurance measures. Having this information written for
a general audience will make it easier for other Cook Inlet
stakeholders and decision makers throughout Alaska to implement
temperature monitoring to understand and respond to thermal
change in local salmon-bearing watersheds.
Cook Inletkeeper is now leading
a committee of state and federal agencies, NGOs, and community
groups to create a monitoring design for Cook Inlet’s Stream
Temperature Monitoring Network. This monitoring design will
incorporate sites and priority areas from 1) a 2001 USGS report
that identifies sites within Cook Inlet with a predicted water
temperature change of 3oC or more based on air
temperature models, 2) the Nature Conservancy’s Cook Inlet
Basin Ecoregional Assessment, which identifies aquatic areas
of biological significance, and 3) the Alaska Clean Water
Actions (ACWA) database of priority waters. Additional
consideration will be given to Alaska Department of Fish and
Game (ADFG) fish weir sites. A sub-set of sites will be
specifically included to address variability due to elevation,
slope, aspect, percent of lakes and wetlands, existing land-use
practices, and riparian and dominant drainage plant communities,
if available. The process of prioritizing and stratifying sites
will be a template for temperature sampling designs in other
watersheds in Alaska.
FUTURE WORK
Cook
Inletkeeper aims to implement the Stream Temperature Monitoring
Network in the summer of 2008. The quantifiable benefits of this
work include:
·
Providing resource
managers with quantified thermal data on key Cook Inlet salmon
systems to make better habitat and management decisions;
·
Identifying salmon
systems and habitat requiring enhanced protection or restoration
efforts due to thermal stressors.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES & LINKS
Kyle, R.E.
and T.B. Brabets, 2001. Water temperature of streams in the Cook
Inlet basin, Alaska, and implications of climate change. U.S.
Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigation Report 01-4109.
http://ak.water.usgs.gov/Publications/Abstracts/2001.Abstracts/CIBwatertemp.htm
The Nature
Conservancy. 2003. Cook Inlet Basin Ecoregional Assessment. The
Nature Conservancy of Alaska. Anchorage, Alaska. 118 p.
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/alaska/preserves/art12944.html
Alaska
Department of Environmental Conservation. 2008. Alaska Clean
Water Actions FY09 Priority Waters and Identified Actions.
Online at:
http://www.dec.state.ak.us/water/acwa/acwa_index.htm
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