Research suggests that melting glaciers are creating new salmon habitats
For decadesclimate change has had a detrimental effect on Pacific salmon stocks. Spawning streams overheat and drought completely dehydrates salmon habitats, affecting many food webs from the Rocky Mountains and coastal areas to the Pacific.
But in a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, led by researchers at the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station, the researchers found that warming trends could provide one silver fringe, if only for a moment: the retreat of glaciers in the Pacific Northwest. America could potentially produce more than 6,000 miles of new Pacific salmon habitat by 2100.
“Climate change is changing the shape and dynamics of stream ecosystems,” he said Diane Whited, A FLBS researcher whose role in the study focused on spatial modeling of potentially accessible creek habitat after glaciers have declined. “This information is critical to managing the future of salmon habitat and productivity.”
Scientists modeled the retreat of the ice age in different climate change scenarios. To achieve this, they used computer models to peel 46,000 glaciers between the southern part of British Columbia and southern Central Alaska and see how much potential salmon habitat would be created when the bedrock below is exposed and new streams flow over the landscape.
According to the group, the salmon’s desired habitat is connected to the ocean, has a slope of 10 percent or less, and has retreating glaciers at its head. By the end of the study, the researchers found that 315 of the glaciers surveyed could meet these requirements.
According to the temperate climate scenario, the loss or shrinking of these glaciers could reveal about 6,150 kilometers of potential new salmon habitat in the Pacific mountains of western North America by 2100 – a distance almost equal to the length of the Mississippi River.
Scientists warn that while the newly created habitat may be a ray of light for salmon in some places, global climate change poses serious challenges to salmon stocks. In addition, if current warming trends continue, new salmon habitats will overheat and eventually disappear in the same way that current salmon habitats do today.
“On the one hand, this amount of new salmon habitat offers local opportunities for some salmon populations,” said SFU space analyst. Kara Pitman, the lead author of the study. “On the other hand, climate change and other human impacts continue to threaten the survival of salmon due to warming rivers, changes in flow and poor marine conditions.”
The complete study is called “Glacier Rereat to Create a New Pacific Salmon Habitat in Western North America,” and is available online.
Source: ANI