Low water temperatures in salmon streams on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula have reeled from government-imposed temperature limits above 55°F, posing a major health risk to salmon habitat, according to a new report published by Alaska's Homer Soil and Water Conservation District.
According to the report, underwater temperature loggers placed in four regional watersheds showed water temperatures above the upper limit for 54 days in 2002, 60 days in 2003, and 86 days in 2003. The provided data logger, located at the onset of Massachusetts, sampled water temperature every 15 minutes during the study.
Homer District, with the Cook Inlet Keeper non-profit organization, has been collecting water quality U12-015-03, U24-002-C, U22-001, UA-002-64, UA-002-08, UA-001 -64, UA-001-08, UTBI-001 data since 1998, economically important salmon streams in the region.
"We're monitoring streams to better understand the frequency and extent of warming," said Sue Mauger, Cook Inlet keeper's stream ecologist. "Seeing these types of temperature-increasing streams is definitely a concern, especially when you consider that many communities here depend on commercial and recreational fishing and tourism."
Water temperature plays a role of indisputable importance in the salmon hatchery process, as temperature is associated with higher susceptibility to disease and depletion of available oxygen and nutrients.
According to beginning spokesman Paul Gannett, stream temperature monitoring is key to understanding the impacts of local and global environmental changes on river ecosystems. "By observing temperature profiles over time, researchers are better able to correlate streams with specific environmental events."
Mauger added, "It's easy to blame climate change, but we also need to keep a close eye on other things we do at the watershed. For example, in recent years, we've lost more than a million acres of forest to white spruce bark beetle infestation. Log There has also been a substantial increase in road construction and real estate development. We don't know if this shift from forested to landscape effects to more ecosystems may flow temperature."
