Using the Tools of Conservation Paleobiology to Assess the Impact of the Engineered Spring-Flood of the Colorado River

利用保护古生物学工具评估科罗拉多河工程春季洪水的影响

• 批准号: 1420978
• 负责人: Gregory Dietl
• 金额: $ 1.62万
• 依托单位: Paleontological Research Institute
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-03-01 至 2016-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1420978&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Using; Tools; Conservation; Paleobiology; Assess

Using the Tools of Conservation Paleobiology to Assess the Impact of the Engineered Spring-Flood of the Colorado RiverByGregory P. Dietl, Paleontological Research Institute, EAR-1420978ABSTRACTThe over allocation of the Colorado River's water has led to the ecological devastation of its delta and lowermost channel. The Colorado River annually delivered over fifteen million acre-feet (~1.85x1010 m3) of water to its delta but in recent years that number has been zero. In 2012, via a bi-national agreement known as Minute 319, environmental pulse flows equal to approximately 1% of the natural annual river discharge were negotiated by the United States and Mexico to be released over a five-year trial period. While this engineered environmental flow has the potential to be a restoration success story, there is a crucial gap in our knowledge: no studies on the ecology of the molluscan community in the lowermost channel of the river are available to provide a benchmark for evaluating the success of this restoration effort. The first pulse will be released in the early spring of 2014, providing a small window in which to establish a baseline for current conditions. This proposal thus seeks support to use a relatively simple community-based approach - comparison of molluscan living and time-averaged death assemblages - developed by conservation paleobiologists to establish a baseline. The samples collected will provide a unique perspective on the composition of the pre-pulse-flow community that is not available from any other source, which will allow the asking of future questions about the success of the pulse flows.

使用保护古生物学工具评估科罗拉多河春季洪水的影响作者：Gregory P. Dietl，古生物学研究所，EAR-1420978摘要科罗拉多河水的过度分配导致了其三角洲和最低河道的生态破坏。科罗拉多河每年向其三角洲输送超过 1500 万英亩英尺（约 1.85x1010 立方米）的水，但近年来该数字一直为零。 2012年，通过一项名为“319分钟”的两国协议，美国和墨西哥商定在五年试行期内释放相当于河流年自然流量约1%的环境脉冲流量。 虽然这种工程环境流有可能成为恢复成功的案例，但我们的知识存在一个重大差距：没有关于河流最下游河道的软体动物群落生态学的研究可以提供评估成功的基准这项恢复工作。第一个脉冲将于 2014 年初春发布，为建立当前状况的基线提供了一个小窗口。 因此，该提案寻求支持使用一种相对简单的基于社区的方法——比较软体动物的生存和平均死亡组合——由保护古生物学家开发来建立基线。收集的样本将为脉冲流前群落的组成提供一个独特的视角，这是从任何其他来源都无法获得的，这将允许提出有关脉冲流成功的未来问题。