All Climate Events

Wednesday, December 2, 2020. 1:00 PM. Webinar: Salmon in the Central Valley: Climate, flow, habitat, and fisheries. Stuart Munsch, Northwest Fisheries Science Center. Sponsored by NOAA NMFS SWFSC Fisheries Ecology Division. More information here.

Salmon in the Central Valley face many stressors, including a harsh climate, hydroregulation, habitat degradation, and fishing. The first part of this talk will discuss the evolution of climate forcing on the fishery's performance across 170 years of ecological simplification. In brief, the contemporary fishery appears to reflect a shifted baseline whereby temperature effects are severe and the fishery does not diffuse impacts of poor climate years in the watershed across multiple fishing years. This lost climate resilience co-evolved with human legacy effects that
concentrated the fishery's climate risk into a predominant salmon life history type. The second part will discuss integrative effects of flow, spawners, and the landscape on habitat use by natural origin fry, highlighting the potential interdependence of water, fisheries, and habitat restoration management arenas in actualizing effects of habitat restoration. Overall, there appears to be potential to improve the natural productivity of the system. And, for fry to inhabit much of the landscape, including restoration sites, will likely require intermediate or higher levels
of flow and escapement.