Kody Salinas
Tannith Felkins
Science
March sixth, 2013
Bloomquist
Section 5.4, Water Appropriations
This section is mostly about how the water streaming needs to be altered with to the right speed. Too slow would cause the flow to be weak to the point where the salmon don't know where to go. Too fast, and the salmon wouldn't be able to swim up the river and find their way. It would also sweep away any algae and other foods for the salmon. Another problem with a weak flow is that waste will build up and won't be cleared out.
Vocab:
Up gradient- up grade in elevation
Appropriations- saving or investing
Morphology- biology studying the bone structure of animals
Down gradient- a decrease in elevation
Upwelling- the process in which warm water is drawn away from along the shore
Detrimental- to damage or bring harm
Ambient- atmosphere of environment
Anondamous- the migration of fish
Optimum- the most favorable end result
Important facts
Maintaining water flow is the most important part of taking care of a salmons habitat.
Any disruption in the water can create problems with the salmons gills and cause great amounts of stress.
Processing ore slurs as much as 10.8 billion tons of mine waste from the mill to the waste-storage facilities, and slurrying concentrate along the 86-mile pipeline from the mine to the port.
Salmon need 30% to 50% of the average annual flow for passage through the lower and middle reaches of rivers, and up to 70% for passage up headwaters streams.
Stream flow also dictates the amount of spawning area available in any stream by regulating the area covered by water and the velocities and depths of water over the gravel beds.
According to Trasky (2008), groundwater directly affects the productivity of salmon-bearing streams by (1) sustaining stream base flows and moderating water level in groundwater-fed lakes and streams; (2) providing stable temperature regimes and refugia; (3) providing nutrients and inorganic ions; and (4) providing stable spawning habitat.
Removing or reducing groundwater would reduce summer and winter stream flows, increase summer stream temperatures, and reduce winter water temperatures—all of which would be detrimental to salmon and their food supplies.
Groundwater from the mine area is the source of many of the seeps and upwelling areas in streams currently used by spawning salmon. Sites with upwelling groundwater are preferentially selected by salmon for spawning.
Changes in water temperature as a result of proposed surface and ground water appropriations are also likely to affect salmon habitat in Upper Talarik Creek and the North and South Forks of the Koktuli River. Water temperature is one of the most important factors governing the well-being of stream ecosystems and salmon populations.
Water temperature affects the egg incubation, metabolism rate, food consumption, growth rate, maturation, resistance to disease and parasites, and emergence timing of aquatic insects
