Article
Quantifying thermal refugia connectivity by combining temperature modeling, distributed temperature sensing, and thermal infrared imaging
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
(2019)
Abstract
Watershed-scale stream temperature models are often one-dimensional because they require fewer data and are more computationally efficient than two- or three- dimensional models. However, one-dimensional models as- sume completely mixed reaches and ignore small-scale spa- tial temperature variability, which may create temperature barriers or refugia for cold-water aquatic species. Fine spatial- and temporal-resolution stream temperature monitoring provides information to identify river features with increased thermal variability. We used distributed temperature sensing (DTS) to observe small-scale stream temperature variability, measured as a temperature range through space and time, within two 400 m reaches in summer 2015 in Nevada’s East Walker and main stem Walker rivers. Thermal infrared (TIR) aerial imagery collected in summer 2012 quantified the spatial temperature variability throughout the Walker Basin. We coupled both types of high-resolution measured data with simulated stream temperatures to corroborate model results and estimate the spatial distribution of thermal refugia for Lahontan cutthroat trout and other cold- water species. Temperature model estimates were within the DTS-measured temperature ranges 21 % and 70 % of the time for the East Walker River and main stem Walker River, respectively, and within TIR-measured temperatures 17%, 5%, and 5% of the time for the East Walker, West Walker, and main stem Walker rivers, respectively.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2019
DOI
DOI:10.5194/hess-23-2965-2019
Citation Information
Sarah Null. "Quantifying thermal refugia connectivity by combining temperature modeling, distributed temperature sensing, and thermal infrared imaging" Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Vol. 23 (2019) p. 2965 - 2982 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/sarah_null/89/