Science to support high priority data needs at stream restoration sites in priority landscapes throughout the Forest Service Southwestern Region

This project addresses the research interest for applied science to support or evaluate projects that increase miles of stream restored or increase implementation of Aquatic Organism Passages. To complete this work, we intend to collect baseline and/or post-implementation monitoring for Aquatic Organism Passage projects on the Gila National Forest and at stream restoration sites in the Enchanted Circle Priority Landscape and priority watersheds with established Watershed Restoration Action Plans.

Aquatic Organism Passage projects in the Tularosa and Dry Blue Creek are being applied in 2023 and 2024 to improve critical habitat and longitudinal connectivity for the endangered Loach Minnow, as well as other fish and amphibian species. In partnership with Dr. Tom Turner at the University of New Mexico, we will assess restoration goals by implementing a genetic monitoring program for Loach Minnow in the project area. This work will directly analyze fish movement in response to Aquatic Organism Passage projects, with a prediction that movement will be enhanced relative to pre-treatment conditions. Movement will be studied by employing a new method of genetic tagging that is enabled by the genomics revolution. In a previous project, we generated a reference genome for the species and characterized variation at 1000s of genes for hundreds of Loach Minnow individuals. In this project, we will leverage those data to develop a Parentage-Based Tagging method for assessing fish movement. This approach relies on extensive pre- and post-treatment sampling, genotyping, and testing the hypothesis of movement of individual fish based on assessing their genetic ancestry, how this superimposes on the landscape, and how patterns of ancestry change post-treatment. Implementation of Parentage-Based Tagging requires developing a genetics toolkit that allows rapid and cost-effective genotyping for 1000s of individuals that would allow assessment of fish movement using ‘genetic tags’. Once developed, this toolkit provides a means to assess fine-scale temporal and spatial changes in fish movement without destructive sampling or invasive physical tagging such as Passive Integrated Transponder tags or implanted tags. 

Photo Credit

USDA photo by Alexis Neukirch

In 2018, tissue collections were made throughout the project area in the San Francisco River basin that encompasses the project area in the Dry Blue and Tularosa Creeks that will serve as a baseline to assess restoration actions. Tissue collections are held in the Museum of Southwestern Biology and are accessible to the project. Based on initial genotyping, we found a moderate degree of genetic differentiation indicating that movement was restricted between two mainstem San Francisco populations. Additional genotyping suggested that factors that limit fish movement within the San Francisco drainage appeared to vary temporally in strength, suggesting that we could detect Loach Minnow response to restoration treatment with a high degree of sensitivity. We will conduct intensive pre-treatment sampling of the project area, bracketing areas of proposed restoration. Tissues will be archived in the Museum of Southwestern Biology and held until they are genotyped. We will resample the project area after implementation of connectivity treatments, collecting tissues for genotyping. Quantitative assessment based on the Parentage-Based Tagging approach allows us to assess the magnitude, direction, and distance of fish movement between baseline, pre-, and post restoration periods. These data will directly inform the response to Aquatic Organism Passage treatments and whether adaptive adjustments should be made to enhance efficacy. 

To provide additional science support to National Forest System partners, we intend to collect baseline and/or post- implementation water table level, riparian habitat structure, soil carbon, and soil greenhouse gas emission data from stream restoration sites in the Enchanted Circle Priority Landscape and in priority watersheds. Process-based stream restoration techniques—including beaver dam analogs and those applied in the Enchanted Circle, such as riffle enhancements and Plug and Pond treatments— attempt to slow runoff, increase overbank flooding, and raise water table levels. If these treatments are successful, we expect to observe a decrease in the depth to groundwater and an increase in groundwater storage at restored sites. As the extent of anoxic environments increases, we also expect that restored reaches may accumulate soil carbon as microbial decomposition is limited by low oxygen availability. Lastly, we expect higher water tables and increased overbank flooding to alter the composition of valley bottom vegetation and drive changes in riparian habitat structure. 

To complete this work, we will install shallow groundwater monitoring wells, collect vegetation plot and soil core data, and use a gas analyzer to measure greenhouse gas emissions (CH4, CO2, and N2O) at degraded control sites, sites already restored or with planned restoration work, and a natural beaver dam complex. Principle Investigator Driscoll has an established research partnership with the Santa Fe and Carson National Forests. This partnership has established a before-after-control-impact study and existing datasets for riparian vegetation species presence and cover, ground arthropod communities, benthic macroinvertebrate communities, aquatic-terrestrial subsidies, and riparian and aquatic food webs at stream restoration sites in the Enchanted Circle Priority Landscape and in the San Antonio Priority Watershed on the Santa Fe National Forest. We will expand data collection at these sites to include monitoring of groundwater storage, riparian habitat structure, and floodplain carbon dynamics. Principle Investigator Driscoll and a Forest Service contractor will install groundwater wells and collect additional riparian vegetation data to improve understanding of how stream restoration treatments impact water table levels and riparian habitat structure. Principle Investigator Krichels will analyze soil carbon stocks and greenhouse gas emissions from transects established by Principle Investigator Driscoll in 2019, allowing us to assess the climate impacts of stream restoration efforts. 

The application of the project depends on close collaboration between researchers associated with the Rocky Mountain Research Station, the University of New Mexico, and National Forest System managers to ensure data collection occurs at sites that will or have received Aquatic Organism Passage or stream restoration treatment. We have worked with managers and their partners to identify monitoring and data needs and design this study. Data management will occur both internally through cataloging baseline and post-implementation data with the Forest Service Data Archive, but also with University of New Mexico and the Museum of Southwestern Biology.

Objectives 

The objectives of this project are to provide science support to the Forest Service Southwestern Region and the Carson, Santa Fe, and Gila National Forests by collecting baseline, implementation, and/or post- implementation monitoring and assessment at Aquatic Organism Passage and stream restoration sites in the Enchanted Circle Priority Landscape and in priority watersheds with restoration action plans. The Principle Investigators have collaborated with Forest Service Southwestern Region and National Forest Staff to identify aquatic organism response to Aquatic Organism Passage projects and the effects of stream restoration on water table levels, riparian soil carbon, and greenhouse gas emissions as high priority data needs.

Expected Project Results 

A. Outputs

The expected outputs for this project include databases, a collection of museum specimens, assessments, webinars, and journal articles. Our team intends to build two databases. The first will contain genetics and ecological data collected post-treatment at Aquatic Organism Passage projects in the Gila National Forest. The second will include groundwater, riparian vegetation plot, riparian soil carbon, and riparian greenhouse gas emissions data collected from stream restoration sites in priority watersheds and the Enchanted Circle Priority Landscape. These datasets will be cataloged within the Forest Service Research Data Archive. Aquatic species collected from Aquatic Organism Passage sites and riparian vegetation specimens collected from stream restoration sites will be archived at University of New Mexico’s Museum of Southwestern Biology. Their associated data will be archived in online databases. These resources will both voucher the proposed work and serve future specimen-based investigations. We will summarize baseline and/or post-implementation monitoring data in assessments throughout the project for our National Forest System partners to consider as they implement Bipartisan Infrastructure Law- and Inflation Reduction Act-funded projects throughout Forest Service Region 3. Upon completion of the studies, our team will present results in webinars for manager partners and other stakeholders such as through Rocky Mountain Research Station's Science You Can Use, ScienceX, Collaborative Conservation and Adaptation Strategy Toolbox, etc., and in presentations at professional and society meetings. Our team plans to submit applications to be considered for the Rocky Mountain Research Station’s Science You Can Use Bulletin to reach a wide audience of natural resource managers across multiple agencies. Lastly, we will submit our work for publication in multiple journal articles.

B. Expected Outcomes

Collection of baseline and/or post-implementation monitoring data will aid National Forest System managers and their partners to evaluate the efficacy of Aquatic Organism Passage projects and stream restoration for achieving desired conditions. These data will describe the impacts to longitudinal connectivity for aquatic species and status of ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, stream flow modulation, and provision of terrestrial riparian habitat within priority landscapes. This work will not only provide needed monitoring data to evaluate effectiveness but help inform decision-making with future restoration funds (e.g., using these data to inform development of projects in future Watershed Restoration Action Plans).

C. Metrics of Success

The success of the project will be measured by the spatial and temporal extent of collected data, the number of journal article citations, the number of downloads of baseline and post- implementation datasets from the Forest Service Data Archive, attendance at webinars for managers and project stakeholders, and acceptance to technology transfer publications such as the Science You Can Use bulletin. We will also consider the use of datasets by management partners to inform, update, and design future AOP and stream restoration sites, as well as Watershed Restoration Action Plans to be metric of success.

Geographies and High-Risk Landscapes to be Addressed

Enchanted Circle
Additional stream restoration and Aquatic Organism Passage project sites described in Watershed Restoration Action Plans in the Southwestern Region