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Flow management for hydropower extirpates aquatic insects, undermining river food webs

Theodore A. Kennedy·Jeffrey D. Muehlbauer·Charles B. Yackulic·D.A. Lytle·S.A. Miller·Kimberly L. Dibble·Eric W. Kortenhoeven·Anya N. Metcalfe·Colden V. Baxter
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Abstract

Dams impound the majority of rivers and provide important societal benefits, especially daily water releases that enable on-peak hydroelectricity generation. Such “hydropeaking” is common worldwide, but its downstream impacts remain unclear. We evaluated the response of aquatic insects, a cornerstone of river food webs, to hydropeaking using a life history–hydrodynamic model. Our model predicts that aquatic-insect abundance will depend on a basic life-history trait—adult egg-laying behavior—such that open-water layers will be unaffected by hydropeaking, whereas ecologically important and widespread river-edge layers, such as mayflies, will be extirpated. These predictions are supported by a more-than-2500-sample, citizen-science data set of aquatic insects from the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon and by a survey of insect diversity and hydropeaking intensity across dammed rivers of the Western United States. Our study reveals a hydropeaking-related life history bottleneck that precludes viable populations of many aquatic insects from inhabiting regulated rivers.

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Theodore A. Kennedy, Jeffrey D. Muehlbauer, Charles B. Yackulic, D.A. Lytle, S.A. Miller, Kimberly L. Dibble, Eric W. Kortenhoeven, Anya N. Metcalfe, Colden V. Baxter. 2016-05-02. Flow management for hydropower extirpates aquatic insects, undermining river food webs. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci%2Fbiw059

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