A new research study featured in the latest issue of the American Fisheries Society’s Fisheries Magazine explores how a warming climate is affecting trout streams throughout the Rocky Mountains, and urges quick action if native trout populations are to persist in diminishing cold-water habitats.
One important point of the article is that even with better information, future uncertainties will remain large due to unknowns regarding Earth’s ultimate warming trajectory and how effects translate across scales. Maintaining or increasing the size of habitats could provide a buffer against these uncertainties.
One of the report’s authors Clint Muhlfeld, an aquatic ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Glacier National Park field office said certain actions that may offset future climate effects include maintaining or restoring in-stream flows, increasing riparian vegetation to shade streams, and maximizing summer habitat volume.
Read more in The Missoulian: http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-regional/report-warming-climate-will-squeeze-trout-in-flathead-river-elsewhere/article_9cd62410-43fe-11e2-8dd6-0019bb2963f4.html
Read the full study: http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_other/rmrs_2012_isaak_d001.pdf
