S TATEWIDE T ARGET F ISH C OMMUNITY A SSESSMENT Public Information Meeting – February 21, 2018 Prepared for : Presented by : 1
M EETING A GENDA • Background on Target Fish Community (TFC) Models • Overview of the Process (this presentation) • Delineation of Designated Rivers (GIS and Fish Community Data) • Selection of “Reference River” areas with similar features (GIS) • Selection of fish samples collected from Reference Rivers (GIS) • Developing the TFC Models • River-Specific Discussions 2
TFC M ODEL D EVELOPMENT • Method derived from Bain and Meixler (2000) and (2005) methods • Meant to characterize the relative abundance (percentage) of species in a river based on data from similar rivers • Reference river data are not from “pristine” or “unimpacted” conditions, but should be from riverine areas that are considered good quality and are not severely degraded • NHDES has used these methods previously for the Souhegan and lower Lamprey River. This project will develop TFC models for 22 Designated River systems • The NH Instream Flow Program will use the TFC for modeling the changes in fish habitat when stream flows change. The model is one element of calculating the river’s protected instream flows 3
TFC M ODEL D EVELOPMENT – A PPLIED TO E ACH D ELINEATED S EGMENT Physical Characteristics of a River WE ARE GIS HERE Final Initial Exercise Data Data All Fish GIS Final Fish Fish Screening Community Screening Exercise Community Reference Community Data from All Reference River Data from River River Segments Reference Segments with Similar Dataset Rivers with Similar Characteristics Characteristics Analyze Dataset • Fish community data from reference rivers has been gathered and initially screened Target Fish • Final screening with be completed in consultation with Community NHDES – this will include removal of stocked fish from the datasets and determination of species to be Model included in the TFC model 4
D ELINEATION OF D ESIGNATED R IVERS 5
D ELINEATION OF D ESIGNATED R IVERS • Goal: Delineate NH Designated Rivers into segments, if appropriate, based on where fish community shifts are predicted to occur • Datasets • Fish Sample Data – Do fish community shifts currently occur? • Physical Characteristic Data – Are there locations where the river changes character dramatically, where fish communities could also shift? 6
D ETERMINING G EOMORPHOLOGICAL C HARACTERISTICS OF R IVER S ECTIONS THAT D RIVE F ISH C OMMUNITY S TRUCTURE • Fish communities in a river can shift due to changes in river character • Though some changes in character may be more likely to cause a fish community shift, primarily we are looking for a combination of potential factors that would result in a fish community change • Stream Order • Water Chemistry • Watershed Area • Thermal Regime • Gradient • Predicted Fish Community Types • Geology • Ecoregion • We can look at this by overlaying data in a “Geographic Information System” (GIS) 7
E XAMPLE D ELINEATION OF A D ESIGNATED R IVER – A MMONOOSUC R IVER • Do fish community shifts currently occur along this river? • Used Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) • People typically think in 2-3 dimensions. NMDS is a statistical method that condenses a dataset with many dimensions down to fewer dimensions so that we can see and understand patterns • One site (29C) that has a different fish community than the rest because it is separated from them in the plot • 29C is in a far upstream area, with only Brook Trout present in the sample that was collected 8
E XAMPLE D ELINEATION OF A D ESIGNATED R IVER – A MMONOOSUC R IVER Gradient • High and very high gradient upper section • Moderate-high gradient dominates the midsection • Low-moderate gradients dominate the lower section Also note the location of 29C, which had a different fish community than the other sites 9
E XAMPLE D ELINEATION OF A D ESIGNATED R IVER – A MMONOOSUC R IVER Stream Order • Primarily 3 rd Order upper section • 4 th Order midsection • 5 th Order lower section 10
E XAMPLE D ELINEATION OF A D ESIGNATED R IVER – A MMONOOSUC R IVER Watershed Size • Primarily headwater and creek in upper section • Primarily small river in midsection • Medium tributary river in lower section 11
E XAMPLE D ELINEATION OF A D ESIGNATED R IVER – A MMONOOSUC R IVER NHDES Predicted Fish Community Types • Along-river types • Surrounding watershed types can also influence what fish species would also be present in a river section 12
E XAMPLE D ELINEATION OF A D ESIGNATED R IVER – A MMONOOSUC R IVER Soils • In this case, there was no soil data for the upper watershed areas • No clear shift in soils along river • Did not determine that a potential delineation based on soil type shifts 13
E XAMPLE D ELINEATION OF A D ESIGNATED R IVER – A MMONOOSUC R IVER Shifts in Geology Shifts in Water Chemistry 14
E XAMPLE D ELINEATION OF A D ESIGNATED R IVER – A MMONOOSUC R IVER 15
D ELINEATION OF D ESIGNATED R IVERS • 37 Delineated Segments 16
R EFERENCE R IVER AND F ISH C OMMUNITY D ATA S ELECTION 17
TFC M ODEL D EVELOPMENT – R EFERENCE R IVER S ELECTION Physical Characteristics of a River GIS Exercise Reference River Segments with Similar Characteristics • Characteristics from the Northeast Aquatic Habitat Classification Layer (TNC) – Dataset spans the entire Northeast Characteristic Class Description Size Class 2 Small River Elevation Class 3 800 - 1,700 feet Gradient Class 4 Moderate-High Chemical Class 1 Low Buffered (Acidic) Temperature Class 1 Cold Level III Ecoregion 58 Northeastern Highlands 18
TFC M ODEL D EVELOPMENT – R EFERENCE R IVER F ISH C OMMUNITY S AMPLES • Fish Community Sample Physical Characteristics Data of a River • Electrofishing datasets GIS Exercise • Obtained for NH, ME, VT, All Fish GIS Community MA, CT, RI, and NY Exercise Reference Data from All River River • Combined and uploaded Segments Segments with Similar to a GIS with Similar Characteristics Characteristics • In GIS, a tool was developed to select samples along the reference river segments 19
TFC M ODEL D EVELOPMENT – R EFERENCE R IVER F ISH C OMMUNITY S AMPLES Physical Characteristics of a River GIS Exercise All Fish GIS Community Exercise Reference Data from All River River Segments Segments with Similar with Similar Characteristics Characteristics 20
TFC M ODEL D EVELOPMENT – R EFERENCE R IVER F ISH C OMMUNITY S AMPLES Initial Data All Fish Fish Community Screening Community Data from All Data from River Reference Segments Rivers with Similar Characteristics • Initial Data Screening Low/Very Low Cumulative Disturbance • Index (National Fish Habitat Disturbance Index Layer) Watershed (HUC4) if possible, to narrow • geographic range – In this case, the CT River watershed was the selection area Sufficient sample data (n>50 fish/sample, • more than one sample/river) Data collected 1990 and later 21 •
E VALUATING S AMPLE S IZES TO D EVELOP R OBUST TFC M ODELS • We need to make sure that we have enough data for each delineated segment to develop the TFC models • Evaluation of Sufficiency • Within-River (for each reference river) – are there enough sites along a reference river to accurately characterize the community? • Among-River (for each TFC model) – are there enough reference rivers to develop an accurate model? • Statistical Tool – MultSE • Way of visualizing that, if we added more information, would the fish community change? • Look for low values, flattening out, and/or low variability (more detail on upcoming slides) 22
TFC M ODEL D EVELOPMENT – R EFERENCE R IVER F ISH C OMMUNITY S AMPLES • Reference rivers selected for the Ammonoosuc River • Middle Delineated Segment • Initial Data Screening – Within-River Data Sufficiency Analysis Does each reference river have enough sample data for adequate fish community representation? • St. Johns and Israel River would have benefitted from more samples, but they were kept due to • moderate MultSE values (as opposed to high MultSE values). Keeping them in the dataset was 23 deemed preferable to searching for additional reference rivers from watersheds farther away
TFC M ODEL D EVELOPMENT – R EFERENCE R IVER F ISH C OMMUNITY S AMPLES • Reference rivers selected for the Ammonoosuc River • Middle Delineated Segment • Initial Data Screening – Among-River Data Sufficiency Analysis • Are there enough reference rivers for development of a TFC model? • These five rivers provided low MultSE values, narrow confidence intervals, and an 24 asymptotic relationship indicating that additional reference rivers is not necessary
TFC M ODEL D EVELOPMENT – R EFERENCE R IVER F ISH C OMMUNITY S AMPLES • All initially-screened data from reference rivers Finalization of these data will be completed prior to development of the TFC model by: • Removing stocked species from reference river data • Removing species not found in the watershed (if reference river data were collected from other • watersheds) Removing species that are not to be included in the TFC model, per NHDES instruction (i.e. non-native • 25 species)
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