The Impacts of Water Use on Diversity of Fish and Insects

The health of fish and aquatic insects could be significantly affected by withdrawals of fresh water from the rivers and streams across North Carolina according to a new scientific assessment.

Damsel fly eaten by the trout

A series of studies were conducted by a team of researchers, led by Jennifer Phelan, Ph.D., a senior ecologist at RTI International, to understand the relationships between changes in streamflow and the diversity of fish and richness of aquatic insects.

The studies quantified how changes humans make to streams by withdrawing water impact the ecological health of aquatic systems.

"We were able to show that human-made disruptions in natural flow patterns contribute to reductions in both the abundance and diversity of fish and insects," Phelan said. "The equations derived from our analysis can be used by water resources managers to better predict how a proposed water withdrawal or other alteration to natural stream flow will affect the health of downstream fish populations."

The research team used RTI's Watershed Flow and Allocation Model, WaterFALL®, to estimate streamflows under both pre-human development conditions and current conditions, reflective of today's land and water use by North Carolina communities

"The ability of WaterFALL to simulate water flows within individual, small segments of rivers and streams was pivotal in enabling the study team to develop statistically significant correlations between changes in streamflow and biological diversity and richness at each of the locations where biological inventories had been prepared by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality," said Michele Eddy, lead developer of the WaterFALL® model and member of RTI's study team.

According to Robert Dykes, senior director for RTI's Water and Ecosystems Management Center, there is a growing need worldwide to better quantify the river flow patterns necessary to ensure adequate functioning of aquatic species, particularly fish and other important food sources.

Read more at: Phys.org

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