The Role of Impoundments, Temperature, and Discharge on Colonization of the Columbia River Basin, USA, by Nonindigenous American Shad

Abstract

Ecologists have become increasingly aware of the combined effects of habitat disturbance and climate change on the establishment and proliferation of invasive species. Long-term data on the population of the invasive American Shad Alosa sapidissima in the U.S. portion of the Columbia River basin provide an opportunity to examine how habitat disturbances affect the abundance and spatial distribution of an invasive species in a heavily modified environment. After the establishment of American Shad in the Columbia River in the late 1800s, the drainage was transformed from its natural lotic state to a series of reservoirs, with concomitant changes to discharge and temperature regimes, which are confounded by climate change. As the Columbia River was dammed, American Shad extended its range and increased in abundance. A large and rapid increase in spawning population abundance (recruits per spawner = 63) followed completion of The Dalles Dam in 1957, which inundated Celilo Falls, a natural barrier to upriver American Shad migration. Regressions revealed that the annual percentage of American Shad migrating upstream from McNary Dam varied with water temperature and discharge (R ² = 0.72), but not population density. When Atlantic coast rivers were dammed, however, American Shad lost spawning habitat and declined in abundance. Understanding the rapid colonization of the Columbia River by American Shad may reveal ways to help American Shad recolonize rivers where they are native. Understanding the roles of water temperature and discharge may allow us to project effects of climate change on the future distribution and abundance of American Shad in the Columbia River basin. Our results suggest that dam construction and alterations to the temperature and discharge regimes of the Columbia River have contributed to the increase in abundance and spatial distribution of American Shad. These changes might have improved the reproductive success of American Shad by providing access to additional spawning grounds and creating suitable juvenile rearing conditions.

Received April 12, 2012; accepted March 13, 2013

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Karin Limburg, Dennis Rondorf, John Waldman, three anonymous referees, and an associate editor for their reviews. Brian Maschhoff assisted with a review of research on the warming of the Columbia River. D.J.H. was supported by the Cooperative Institute for Limnology and Ecosystems Research (CILER) at the University of Michigan and a NOAA (Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory) Aquatic Invasive Species Program (AISP) grant (NA07OAR4320006), held at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington. The Shad Foundation provided access to background materials for this article. The authors acknowledge National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network grant (0742196) to the Senator George J. Mitchell Center at the University of Maine that fostered collaborations on this project. The views expressed in this paper are solely those of the authors and are not intended to represent the views of any organization with which any of the authors are affiliated.