Influence of environmental thresholds on trajectories of freshwater assemblages with implications for building climate resilience across prairie landscapes.project period: 08 2 2024 - 08 01 2029 award…

This $122,644 federal Cooperative Agreement award, granted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) under the Cooperative Research Units (CFDA 15.812) program, supports research to identify environmental thresholds that influence the presence and composition of aquatic organisms, such as fish, crayfish, and mussels, in prairie stream ecosystems across the Great Plains. The project, led by researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, aims to provide critical data and modeling tools to help resource managers prioritize locations in need of conservation efforts to build climate resilience for these aquatic communities. Key deliverables include aggregated datasets, maps, and peer-reviewed publications quantifying environmental thresholds, as well as coordination and collaboration among prairie state stream managers. The award will fund a post-doctoral researcher and two Master's students to conduct this research over the 5-year project period from August 2024 to August 2029.

Influence of environmental thresholds on trajectories of freshwater assemblages with implications for building climate resilience across prairie landscapes.project period: 08 2 2024 - 08 01 2029 award purpose - prairie streams are lifelines for human society through provisioning of economic, recreational, and municipal services. However, environmental conditions surrounding and within prairie streams are substantially altered. Aquatic organisms including fish, crayfish, and mussels may be sensitive to environmental change including landcover conversion, road and DAM construction, and climate change. These environmental changes dictate where and when organisms can successfully survive. However, there is limited knowledge across the great plains regarding thresholds in environmental change which cause some organisms to disappear from local habitat. Subsequently, managers lack data needed to guide decision-making regarding where to implement actions that may deal with human-induced shifts in the presence and composition of aquatic organisms. Separate data collection efforts across great plains states can be combined, analyzed, and summarized to identify thresholds of environmental change. Thus, the research team will work with managers and conservation practitioners to predict the level of disturbance leading to changes in species presence. This work will estimate the overall health of streams across prairie ecosystems. The results of this project will fill a critical knowledge GAP needed to increase climate resilience of aquatic organisms dependent on prairie streams. Because not all prairie stream organisms will be able to track their ideal environmental conditions, on the ground management actions will be needed to promote persistence of some species within a changing climate. This project will inform the process of identifying when and where such actions may be best implemented. Activities to be performed - the 4 PIS receiving funding will be responsible for product delivery including interim and final reports. The post-doctoral researcher at the university of nebraska-lincoln will lead efforts for fish data synthesis and threshold modelling, as well as development of peer-reviewed publications. The two MS students will explore mussel and crayfish data acquisition, conduct field validation, lead trait-based modeling efforts, and develop additional peer-reviewed publications. Recruitment of the post-doctoral researcher and 2 MS students will begin immediately. Year-1 will be spent hiring and onboarding post-doctoral researcher and MS students, literature searches, data accumulation and synthesis, and initial threshold modelling at regional spatial scales. The post-doctoral researcher will travel to the university of arkansas, texas tech university, and university of wyoming to meet with investigators and discuss modeling approaches. Year-2 will be spent finishing development of database, threshold modeling at the full spatial extent, and collecting field data for validating model predictions. Year-3 will be spent finishing MS theses, report writing and dissemination to stakeholders (casc), and peer-reviewed publications. Deliverables and expected outcomes - the expected science products of this study are aggregated datasets, maps, and peer-reviewed publications quantifying thresholds for prairie stream assemblages that can be used by managers to prioritize locations in need of management efforts. The expectation is that this project will increase coordination and collaboration among prairie state stream managers and provide the opportunity to learn from other states experiences. Intended beneficiary(IES) scientists and resource managers responsible for understanding and managing prairie stream systems and the biota supported therein. Subrecipient activities, if known or specified at the time of award not specified at time of award.