Critical thermal refugia for Atlantic salmon and brook trout populations of eastern Canadian rivers

该项目涉及8名具有一系列生物和水文专业知识的大学研究人员。它的目的是研究物理控制和生物学意义的鲑鱼的本地化，冷水避难所网站沿着河流在魁北克省南部和新玩法省。在世纪夏季变暖的情况下，这种热避难所可能成为关键，限制了我们占主导地位的冷水运动鱼、鲑鱼和溪鳟在其种群范围南部极限生存的栖息地。冷热避难所是异质的和视觉上不显眼的：它们在尺寸、空间分布和物理控制方面范围很广：有些与地下水沿沿着上升有关，有些与特定支流的河口有关，有些则与小的潜流渗漏有关。这些神秘的栖息地之间的典型分离沿着鲑鱼或鳟鱼河流系统是鲜为人知的，是鲑鱼的能力，以检测和迁移到这些网站显着的距离，或鱼类死亡率作为距离和温度模式的函数。此外，在可能的情况下，未来的温度，降雨和积雪条件下的世纪，相对尺寸和价值的主要类型的河流地下水上升的热避难所也不清楚。本项目将利用热红外探测技术结合鱼类生态实地调查，研究这些生境的空间分布和支持能力。通用水文地质模型将在区域气候情景的背景下探索一系列的河流地下水上升环境。我们的工业合作伙伴Hydro-Quebec需要我们最先进的工具和模型来监测和预测河流流量变化（和深层水库释放）对鱼类栖息地（包括热避难所）及其影响的河流生态系统的影响。广泛的环境效益，加拿大可以预期在适应气候变化的北方河流生态系统管理和优化未来的鱼类保护投资方面，通过澄清在何种程度上未来的热制度可以限制生产力或冷水物种在个别河流的生存，作为其特定的避难所空间分布的功能。

This project involves 8 university researchers with a range of biological and hydrological expertises. It aims to study the physical controls and biological significance for salmonids of localized, cool water refugia sites along rivers in southern Quebec and New Brunswick. Under a 21st century regime of warming summers, such thermal refugia may become key, limiting habitats for the survival of our dominant cold water sport fish, salmon and brook trout, at the southern limits of their population range. Cool thermal refugia are both heterogeneous and visually inconspicuous: they range widely in dimensions, spatial distribution and physical controls: some are associated with groundwater upwellings along river beds, others with the mouths of particular tributaries and some, with small hyporheic seeps. The typical separation between these cryptic habitats along salmon or trout rivers systems is poorly known as is the ability of salmonids to detect and migrate significant distances to such sites, or fish mortality rates as a function of distances and temperature patterns. Moreover, under likely scenarios of future temperature, rainfall and snow cover conditions for the later 21st century, the relative dimensions and value as thermal refugia of major types of in-stream groundwater upwellings is also unclear. This project will apply thermal IR detection combined with fish ecology field surveys to study the spatial distribution and support capacity of these habitats. Generic hydrogeological models will explore a range of in-stream groundwater upwelling settings in context of regional climate scenarios. Our industrial partner Hydro-Quebec needs our state of the art tools and models to monitor and predict effects of river flow modifications (and deep reservoir releases) on fish habitats (including thermal refugia) on the river ecosystems they impact. Broad environmental benefits for Canada can be expected in terms of adaptations to climate change of Boreal river ecosystem management and optimisation of future fish conservation investments, by clarifying to what extent future thermal regimes can limit the productivity or the survival of cold water species in individual rivers, as a function of its particular refugia spatial distribution.