Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

The construction of dams and other facilities used to create hydraulic head for the generation of hydroelectricity have direct impacts on the biological and physical processes of the aquatic ecosystems they are built in. In an effort to promote sustainable hydropower in Canada and to improve the management of fish populations in these systems, a better understating of the abiotic and biotic conditions which occur in these altered environments is needed. The general objective of this proposed study is to provide new knowledge and solutions to the issues facing hydropower in the assessment of impacts on fish populations. Two complementary projects have been designed to examine the core issues encountered by fish in reservoirs and regulated rivers. The first component will identify the most appropriate analytical tools and spatial scales which should be applied in the estimation, modeling and prediction of changes in the production of fish. The second component will focus on the risk of resident fish entrainment (i.e. the non-volitional displacement of fish from reservoirs with water diversion). For a comprehensive understanding of entrainment risk, both the complete hydraulics of a system and the behavioural response of fish to changes in the flow are required. Once both of these facets are known, a generalized framework for assessing resident fish entrainment risk that integrates both the hydraulic and biological conditions will be developed. With a comprehensive knowledge of the conditions encountered by fish in hydropower-altered systems, suitable analytical and mitigative tools can be developed to minimise the impacts on aquatic ecosystems and increase the sustainability of hydroelectricity.