Tag Archives: Resource Development

McPherson, M.*, Lewis, J.B., Cott, P.B., Baker, L.F., Mochnacz, N.J. Swanson, H.K., and S. Poesch. (2023) Habitat use by fluvial Arctic Grayling (Thymallus arcticus) across life stages in northern mountain streams. Environmental Biology of Fishes.

Citation: McPherson, M.*, Lewis, J.B., Cott, P.B., Baker, L.F., Mochnacz, N.J. Swanson, H.K., and S. Poesch. (2023) Habitat use by fluvial Arctic Grayling (Thymallus arcticus) across life stages in northern mountain streams. Environmental Biology of Fishes.

Abstract

Northern aquatic ecosystems face increasing pressures from climate change and natural resource development.  The Arctic Grayling (Thymallus arcticus) is a widely distributed, northern freshwater fish which can be vulnerable to such pressures. There remains a paucity of information on life stage requirements through most of the species’ range to reliably map and manage habitat to protect populations into the future. We sought to characterize fluvial Arctic Grayling distribution among mountain streams and determine habitat characteristics that habitat use across life stages. Sampling was conducted at 183 sites across the Little Nahanni River watershed to collect information on fish distribution and reach-scale habitat parameters. Arctic Grayling were collected for biological analyses of age, size, weight, and reproductive development. Based on age and size-classes there were four distinct post-emergence life stages: YOY, juvenile, sub-adult and adult. YOY Arctic Grayling were found exclusively in low elevation (<1000 m) streams, flat-water habitat dominated by silty-sand substrate with average water temperatures >10oC. Similarly, juvenile Arctic Grayling occupied low elevation, warm water stream habitat, but associated strongly with run habitats. Sub-adult Arctic Grayling, the most widely distributed life-stage, were found associated with riffle, pool, and cascade-boulder habitats. Adults occupied high elevation (>1200 m) habitats that were cold (mean stream temperature = 7oC), and had higher proportions of pool and boulder habitat. The dynamic nature of Arctic Grayling habitat use in mountain streams highlights the need to consider habitat complexes at the watershed scale when defining species life stage requirements, managing habitats, monitoring populations, and assessing potential impacts.

Keywords: Climate Change; Water Stress; Biodiversity; Preservation.

*Lab members: Morag McPherson and Mark Poesch. Check out opportunities in the lab!

Theis, S.*, Ruppert, J. L. W. and M. S. Poesch. (2023) Coarse woody habitat use by local fish species and structural integrity of enhancements over time in a shallow northern boreal lake assessed in a Bayesian modeling approach. Ecological Solutions and Evidence.

Citation: Theis, S., Ruppert, J. L. W. and M. S. Poesch. (2023) Coarse woody habitat use by local fish species and structural integrity of enhancements over time in a shallow northern boreal lake assessed in a Bayesian modeling approach. Ecological Solutions and Evidence.

Abstract

  1. The introduction of coarse woody habitat has been a widely adopted management practice for restoring and enhancing freshwater aquatic ecosystems. Although responses of aquatic fish and invertebrate communities have largely been documented for lotic systems, benefits for lentic ecosystems have been mostly unevaluated.
  2. We tested the responses of fish populations to coarse woody habitat structures through a Bayesian modeling approach in a northern boreal lake in Alberta, Canada by enhancing a stretch of littoral zone with low structural complexity through introduction of coarse wood bundles and whole tree structures. The study site was split into three treatments, a Spaced treatment (structures 30 m apart), a Clustered treatment (structures 15 m apart), and an unaltered area (Control).
  3. Catch per unit effort and Catch per unit area data were collected over 2 years and posterior model predictions showed an increase in habitat use of the enhanced areas by spottail shiner – Notropis hudsonius; northern pike – Esox lucius; white sucker – Catostomus commersonii; brook stickleback – Culaea inconstans. No probable effect on overall fish condition, measured in Relative Weight, was linked to the enhancements.
  4. Across the two-year study, wood bundles degraded faster compared to the whole tree drops, coinciding with leveling off catch per unit effort and catch per unit area predictions near wood bundles, although catch predictions increased near the whole tree structures. Structural degradation set in as early as 1 week post construction for wood bundles and was mostly related to anchoring aspects.
  5. Results from our study provide evidence for the benefits provided by coarse woody habitat within northern boreal lake systems.  They furthermore highlight the short-lived nature of wood bundles built with biodegradable substances.  Methodologically our results offer evidence on the feasibility and utility of predictive modeling frameworks in addressing pseudoreplication and providing informative value for ecological studies.

Keywords: Fish Abundance, Northern Boreal Ecoregion, Habitat Enhancement, Restoration, Lake Ecosystems, Bayesian

*Lab members: Sebastian Theis, Jonathan Ruppert and Mark Poesch. Check out opportunities in the lab!

Theis, S.*  Castellanos D.A., Hamann A. and M.S. Poesch. (2022) Exploring the potential role of habitat banks in preserving freshwater biodiversity and imperiled species in the United States. Biological Conservation 273: 109700.

Citation: Theis, S.  Castellanos D.A., Hamann A. and M.S. Poesch. (2022) Exploring the potential role of habitat banks in preserving freshwater biodiversity and imperiled species in the United States. Biological Conservation 273: 10970.

Abstract

Habitat banking, a conservation approach to offset habitat loss, has been widely accepted and implemented in the United States, especially for the protection of freshwater ecosystems. The potential adequacy of the habitat banking approach has, however, not yet been formally quantified in the context of its underlying framework and policies. Using a gap analysis approach, we test the current adequacy and future potential of habitat banking for 2313 approved and 552 pending banks in the United States. In the analysis, we consider water stress due to projected climate change, freshwater diversity, imperiled species, and human population growth, among other factors. The results show that the highest conservation urgency was assigned to states in the Southwest with high levels of species imperilment and large increases in anticipated water stress. The banking network covers most of the freshwater biodiversity hotspots in the East and Southeast. Land ownership is a potential driver for the low bank density in western states, with large proportions of land being owned and managed through federal agencies and only 58 banks situated on federal land. While the banking network in the United States is one of the most developed on a global level, gaps and priority areas can be clearly identified to strengthen the current network and its role in preserving freshwater habitat and diversity.

Keywords: Offsetting; Conservation policy; Biodiversity market; Preservation.

*Lab members: Sebastian Theis and Mark Poesch. Check out opportunities in the lab!

Theis, S.*  Koops, M. and M.S. Poesch. (2022) A meta-analysis on the effectiveness of offsetting strategies for harm to freshwater fishes. Environmental Management 70(5): 793-807.

Citation: Theis, S.  Koops, M. and M.S. Poesch. (2022) A meta-analysis on the effectiveness of offsetting strategies for harm to freshwater fishes. Environmental Management 70(5): 793-807.

Abstract

Offsetting aims to compensate for negative impacts due to authorized anthropogenic impacts. While anchored into legislation through extensive frameworks across many countries, residual or chronic impacts can occur after offset establishment for example because of the ephemeral timescale of some projects. Advice and best practice on how to approach these impacts is rare. To address this, we reviewed 30 projects based on a systematic review and meta-analysis in freshwater ecosystems dealing with residual or long-term negative impacts to provide application advice for the three main identified approaches of: habitat creation, habitat restoration and biological and chemical manipulation. Project information was obtained from scientific databases and grey literature through Boolean search terms and web-scraping. Habitat creation projects, mainly targeting salmonids, had a pooled effect size of 0.8 and offsetting ratios of 1:5 with high biomass increases of over 1.4x compared to pre-establishment, associated with them. Habitat restoration projects targeted a wide range of species and communities with a pooled effect size of 0.66, offset ratios ranging from 1:1.2 to 1:4.6, and biomass increases generally > 1x compared to pre-restoration. Biological manipulation had the lowest effect size (0.51) with stocking efforts being highly variable both in terms of biomass benefits and project outcomes pointing towards stocking being mostly applicable in cases of direct fish harm not related to environmental degradation or habitat loss. Many projects targeted salmonid species and application for a wider range of species needs to be further assessed. We conclude that 1) all three assessed approaches have a potential application use for offsetting Residual or Chronic Harm with approach specific caveats. 2) time to record first benefits required one to two years with time lags needing to be accounted for in the implementation and monitoring process, 3) monitoring timeframes of more than four years and conducting pre-assessments increased projects success significantly.

Keywords: Offsetting; Conservation policy; Biodiversity market; Preservation.

*Lab members: Sebastian Theis and Mark Poesch. Check out opportunities in the lab!

Theis S.*, and M.S. Poesch (2022) Assessing conservation and mitigation banking practices and associated gains and losses in the United States. Sustainability 14: 6652..

Citation: Theis, S.  and M.S. Poesch. (2022) Assessing conservation and mitigation banking practices and associated gains and losses in the United States. Sustainability 14: 6652.

Abstract

Conservation and mitigation banks allow proponents to buy credits to offset negative residual impacts of development projects with the goal of No net loss (NNL) in ecosystem function and habitat area. However, little is known about the extend to which bank transactions achieve NNL. We synthesized and reviewed 12756 transactions in the United States as to meeting area and ecological equivalence (n = 4331) between approved negative impact and offset. While most transactions provided an offset equal or greater in area than the impacted area, approximately one quarter of transactions, especially targeting wetlands, did not meet ecological equivalence between impact and offset. Missing ecological equivalence was often due to the significantly increasing use of preservation, enhancement, and rehabilitation over creating new ecosystems through establishment and re-establishment. Stream transactions seldom added new ecosystem area through creation but mainly used rehabilitation to add offset benefits, in many cases leading to net loss of area. Our results suggest that best practice guidance on habitat creation as well as incentivization of habitat creation must increase in the future to avoid net loss trough bank transactions and meet the ever-accelerating global changes in land-use and the increase pressure of climate change.

Keywords: Offsetting; Conservation policy; Biodiversity market; Preservation.

*Lab members: Sebastian Theis and Mark Poesch. Check out opportunities in the lab!

Ponton D.E., Ruelas-Inzunza J., Lavoie R., Lescord G.L., Johnston T.A., Graydon J.A., Reichert, M., Donadt C., Poesch M.S., Gunn, J.A., and M. Amyot. (2022) Mercury, selenium and arsenic concentrations in Canadian freshwater fish and a perspective on human consumption intake and risk. Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances.

Citation: Ponton D.E., Ruelas-Inzunza J., Lavoie R., Lescord G.L., Johnston T.A., Graydon J.A., Reichert, M., Donadt C., Poesch M.S., Gunn, J.A., and M. Amyot. (2022) Mercury, selenium and arsenic concentrations in Canadian freshwater fish and a perspective on human consumption intake and risk. Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances.

Abstract

Mercury (Hg) and arsenic (As) contamination of fish may limit its human consumption  whereas selenium (Se) can potentially protect fish and consumers from their adverse effects. We related the concentrations of these elements in Canadian freshwater fish to anthropogenic activities and ecozones and compared these concentrations to risk assessment thresholds. Mercury concentrations exceeded the retail fish Canadian threshold (0.5 ppm) in 31% of all Walleye; this proportion rose to 64% in reservoirs. Reservoirs and lakes impacted by logging and urbanization presented higher fish [Hg] than other impacted systems. In mining areas, fish [Hg] were low and negatively correlated with [Se]. Se and As concentrations exceeded Canadian guidelines in 5 and 0.2% of all fish, respectively. A previously unreported negative relationship between mean [As] and [Hg] suggested an inverse consumption risk for these two elements. The ratio Se/Hg was lower than 1 for 14% of all fish and was negatively correlated with fish length. No major differences were seen among fish lengths that reached the Hg guideline and the Se/Hg threshold of 1. Using the benefit-risk value (BRV) threshold that considers Se intake, there were no limit to fish consumption. More studies are needed to assess the role of Se against Hg toxicity and adjust fish consumption guidelines accordingly.

*Lab members:  Mark Poesch. Check out opportunities in the lab!

Theis S.*, and M.S. Poesch (2022) Current capacity, bottlenecks, and future projections for offsetting habitat loss using mitigation and conservation banking in the United States. Journal for Nature Conservation 67:126159.

Citation: Theis S., and M.S. Poesch (2022) Current capacity, bottlenecks, and future projections for offsetting habitat loss using mitigation and conservation banking in the United States assessed through the Regulatory In lieu fee and Bank Information Tracking System. Journal for Nature Conservation 67: 126159.

Abstract

Habitat banking in its many iterations is an established and popular mechanism to deliver environmental offsets. The United States can look back at over 30 years of banking experience with the underlying framework and policies being consistently updated and improved. Given the increased demand in habitat banking, we provide insights into how bank area capacity is distributed across the United States for four different bank targets (wetlands, streams, multiple ecosystems, species) based on information extracted from the Regulatory In-lieu Fee and Bank Information Tracking System, as well as, estimating future capacities and area reserves through a predictive modeling approach based on data from the past 26 years. Future predictions indicate a decrease in available reserves for banks targeting wetlands or multiple ecosystems, with potential bottlenecks relating to large reserves being limited to the southeast and release schedules not catching up to the current and anticipated demand. Banks targeting species or streams are predicted to meet future demand, with species banks (conservation banks) following a different legislative and operational approach based on the listing of endangered species and pro-active approaches with anticipated future demand. Most current reserves for all four bank types are restricted to very few service areas with around one-third of all bank areas still awaiting release, limiting their availability on a broader scale. Strategic planning networks are necessary to meet future demand on a national scale and to identify areas suitable for banking or likely to experience future environmental or developmental stress.

*Lab members: Sebastian Theis and Mark Poesch. Check out opportunities in the lab!

Theis, S.*, Ruppert, J.W.R*, Roberts, K.*, Koops, M., Minns, K. and M.S. Poesch. (2020) Compliance with and ecosystem function of biodiversity offsets in North American and European freshwaters. Conservation Biology 34(1) 41-53.

Citation: Theis, S.*, Ruppert, J.W.R*, Roberts, K.*, Koops, M., Minns, K. and M.S. Poesch. (2020) Compliance with and ecosystem function of biodiversity offsets in North American and European freshwaters. Conservation Biology 34(1) 41-53.

Abstract

Land‐use change via human development is a major driver of biodiversity loss. To reduce these impacts, billions of dollars are spent on biodiversity offsets. However, studies evaluating offset project effectiveness that examine components such as the overall compliance and function of projects remain rare. We reviewed 577 offsetting projects in freshwater ecosystems that included the metrics project size, type of aquatic system (e.g., wetland, creek), offsetting measure (e.g., enhancement, restoration, creation), and an assessment of the projects’ compliance and functional success. Project information was obtained from scientific and government databases and gray literature. Despite considerable investment in offsetting projects, crucial problems persisted. Although compliance and function were related to each other, a high level of compliance did not guarantee a high degree of function. However, large projects relative to area had better function than small projects. Function improved when projects targeted productivity or specific ecosystem features and when multiple complementary management targets were in place. Restorative measures were more likely to achieve targets than creating entirely new ecosystems. Altogether the relationships we found highlight specific ecological processes that may help improve offsetting outcomes.

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*Lab members:  Sebastian Theis, Jonathan Ruppert, Karling Roberts and  Mark Poesch. Check out opportunities in the lab!

Sinnatamby, R.N.*, Loewen, T.N., Luo, Y., Pearson, D.G., Bicalho, B., Grant-Weaver, I., Cuss, C.W., Poesch,M.S., and W. Shotyk. (2019). Spatial assessment of major and trace element concentrations from Lower Athabasca Region Trout-perch (Percopsis omiscomaycus) otoliths. Science of the Total Environment 655 (10):  363-373.

Citation: Sinnatamby, R.N.*, Loewen, T.N., Luo, Y., Pearson, D.G., Bicalho, B., Grant-Weaver, I., Cuss, C.W., Poesch,M.S., and W. Shotyk. (2019). Spatial assessment of major and trace element concentrations from Lower Athabasca Region Trout-perch (Percopsis omiscomaycus) otoliths. Science of the Total Environment 655 (10):  363-373. 

Abstract

The Lower Athabasca Region (LAR) is home to the largest bitumen deposit in Alberta, and has seen industrial development related to the extraction and processing of bituminous sands since the late 1960s. Along with industrial and economic growth related to oil sands development, environmental concerns have increased in recent decades, including those about potential effects on fish. We measured major and trace element concentrations in Trout-perch otoliths from the Athabasca and Clearwater Rivers in the LAR, to illustrate spatial variations and identify possible industrial impacts. Both laser ablation ICP-MS and solution-based ICP-MS methods were employed. Of the trace elements enriched in bitumen (V, Ni, Mo and Re), only Ni and Re were above the limits of detection using at least one of the methods. The only significant differences in element concentrations between upstream and downstream locations were found for Li, Cu, and Pb which were more abundant upstream of industry. For comparison and additional perspective, otoliths from the same fish species, but taken from the Batchawana River in northern Ontario, were also examined. The fish from Alberta yielded greater concentrations of Ba, Bi, Li, Mg, Na, Re, Sc, Th and Y, but the Ontario fish more Cr, Rb and Tl, because of differences in geology.

*Lab members: Nilo Sinnatamby, Mark Poesch. Check out opportunities in the lab!

Graphical Abstract

Donner, M. Cuss, C., Poesch, M.S., Sinnatamby, N.*, Siddique, T., and W. Shotyk. (2018) Selenium in surface waters of the lower Athabasca River watershed: chemical speciation and implications for aquatic life. Environmental Pollution 243 (B): 1343-1351.

Citation: Donner, M. Cuss, C., Poesch, M.S., Sinnatamby, N.*, Siddique, T., and W. Shotyk. 2018. Selenium in surface waters of the lower Athabasca River watershed: chemical speciation and implications for aquatic life. Environmental Pollution 243 (B): 1343-1351.

Abstract

Selenium in the lower Athabasca River (Alberta, Canada) is of concern due to potential inputs from the weathering of shallow bitumen deposits and emissions from nearby surface mines and upgraders. Understanding the source of this Se, however, is complicated by contributions from naturally saline groundwater and organic matter-rich tributaries. As part of a two-year multidisciplinary study to assess natural and anthropogenic inputs, Se and its chemical speciation were determined in water samples collected along a ~125 km transect of the Athabasca River and associated tributaries. Selenium was also determined in the muscle of Trout-perch (Percopsis omiscomaycus), a non-migratory fish species, that were sampled from selected locations. Dissolved (< 0.45 µm) Se in the Athabasca River was consistently low in 2014 (0.11 ± 0.02 µg L-1; n = 14) and 2015 (0.16 ± 0.02 µg L-1; n = 21), with no observable increase from upstream to downstream. Selenate was the predominant inorganic form (~60 ng L-1) and selenite was below detection limits at most locations. The average concentration of Se in Trout-perch muscle was 2.2 ± 0.4 mg kg-1 (n = 34), and no significant difference (p > 0.05) was observed between upstream and midstream (industrial) or downstream reaches. Tributary waters contained very low concentrations of Se (typically < 0.1 µg L-1), which was most likely present in the form of dissolved organic colloids.

*Lab members: Nilo Sinnatamby, Mark Poesch. Check out opportunities in the lab!

Graphical Abstract