Significant Projects and Papers

River flood plains are hot spots of biodiversity and productivity due to dynamic interactions between water, sediments, vegetation, and other organisms. Connectivity between surface and ground waters plays an important role in floodplain ecology and habitat diversity, particularly through the exchange of water and materials between the river and the alluvial aquifer that lies just under the surface. This extensive surface and groundwater connectivity also sustains water quantity and quality. Due to human development, floodplains are one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world.

For decades, FLBS researchers have been studying these processes and how they influence organisms at the Nyack Floodplain Research Natural Area on the Middle Fork Flathead River, located between Glacier National Park and the Great Bear Wilderness. This research has demonstrated the vital importance of surface and ground water exchange and has fundamentally molded contemporary river science, management, and conservation.

Currently, FLBS PhD student Amanda DelVecchia is studying how naturally occurring methane gas may subsidize productivity on the flood plain. Amanda is characterizing microbial and invertebrate communities in relation to the environmental gradients of the alluvial aquifer to better understand utilization of methane and organic matter. Her work aims to understand how organisms use, cleanse, and enrich water as it flows through the aquifer, information that is needed to sustain the ecological integrity of rivers around the world. Large stoneflies are iconic players in this story as analyses show that they feed on microbes that use methane as an energy source.

Read more about the Biocomplexity project (link on old site)

A wide variety of previously unknown biota, including stoneflies and other large-bodied organisms, exist within alluvial aquifers of the expansive flood plains of the Flathead and other gravel-bed rivers. This amazing discovery led to the “hyporheic corridor concept” of river ecosystems, which first formalized the fundamental importance of water and materials interchange between the river channel and near-surface groundwater. Organisms living in the groundwater utilize organic matter form the river and floodplain as a food source, thereby filtering, or cleansing the river water as it moves through the porous bedsediments.

River ecosystems are altered dramatically by the presence of dams and reservoirs. Reservoirs directly convert river habitat into lakes, environments for which most river organisms are not well suited. Dams interrupt the continuity of conditions and transportation of materials in streams and rivers as flow moves downstream.

After the major dam building era in the US, 1940s–1960s, FLBS researchers were among the first to scientifically examine the ecological effects of dams, pioneering the field, writing the first text book, and founding the first journal about Regulated Rivers.

Findings have shown that rivers are changed but can reset or recover from the deleterious impacts of dams in relation to mode of dam operations and distance downstream from the dam. This discovery was formalized into the “Serial Discontinuity Concept” of river ecosystems, which predicts the ecological effects of dam operations and allows water, temperature, and material fluxes to be normalized, thereby ameliorating impacts of river regulation on biota, sediment transport, habitat characteristics, riparian vegetation, and other important attributes of rivers.

FLBS research has helped shape today’s dialogue balancing the ecological costs of dams with their benefits to society. This is particularly important as many dams in the US are currently undergoing re-licensing, a process that determines future dam operations for the next 20-50 years. This process now requires the consideration of ecological effects, which at times has even resulted in the recommendation of dam removal.

Most aquatic organisms are "cold blooded" (ectotherms), meaning that their body temperature, metabolism, and ecological activity are determined by the temperature of their surrounding environment. Therefore water temperature is one of the most important determinants of occurrence, growth, reproduction, survival, and all around success for aquatic organisms (e.g. insects, frogs, and fish).

FLBS research has shown that water temperature drives biological patterns observed on the landscape. For example, aquatic insects and other organisms are distributed predictably along stream corridors from headwaters to piedmont valleys in relation to temperature patterns. On floodplains, thermal characteristics of different habitat types throughout the year determine which aquatic organisms are able to thrive (or just survive) in which locations during different life history stages.

These discoveries about life history energy balance of organisms in montane environments have important ramifications for predicting the consequences of climate change.

New tools in quantitative genetics allow FLBS researchers to gain a more detailed understanding of the relationships between native and non-native species and to explore their interactions within the context of climate change and other environmental influences.

More information is available on the FLBS Conservation Genetics page.

FLBS in cooperation with other organizations documented salmonid biodiversity and productivity of a suite of pristine Pacific salmon river ecosystems observatories. The research focused on salmonid habitat requirements that appeared to vary with life history stage and population structure. We believed that productivity of habitat is controlled by non-linear biophysical processes that create and maintain a dynamic or constantly Shifting Habitat Mosaic (SHM). Our research also addressed how salmon rivers and their stocks respond to climate change. Runoff and temperature patterns are primary determinants of physical habitat in rivers and therefore critically influence salmon productivity. Since both variables may be changed significantly by climate warming, better resolution of climate effects was needed to produce robust conservation strategies for salmon and salmon related biodiversity. Human activities tend to reduce or dampen the variable nature of rivers in ways that should be predictable and, therefore, correctable given a robust understanding and modeling of salmon productivity and population dynamics in the context of the SHM concept.

Read more about the SaRON project (link on old site)

A presidential task force recently released a report requesting all federal agencies to consider climate-related risks and vulnerabilities as part of their policies and practices. However, climate change is seldom considered in salmonid conservation decision making, despite major declines in these ecologically and economically critical species. Protecting native salmonids and their riverscapes against the impacts of climate change demands better understanding of the interactive influences of environmental variation (especially water temperature and flow), habitat and anthropogenic stressors (e.g., landuse change), genetics/genomics, and population demographics (e.g., abundance). To meet this challenge, FLBS researchers continue work on applying a prototype decision support system (DSS) to aid in the decision-making process for conserving salmonids and their habitats under a changing climate.

Read more about the Riverscape Analysis project

The Rio Grande brown trout study objective was to determine population parameters and factors controlling productivity of sea trout (sea-run brown trout) in the Rio Grande of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. FLBS used the catch and release fly fishing operations of NWA and EMB as a basis for a mark and recapture study of the brown trout population within various study reaches of the river in association with other ecological measures encompassing the freshwater life cycle.

The project goal was to use the accumulated information as a basis for development of a strategy to sustain high-quality angling and ecotourism income in the Rio Grande and to use scientific results to better inform salmon and trout management worldwide.

FLBS scientists have extensively utilized, and in fact pioneered, aspects of the use of aerial sensors and imagery (satellite and aircraft mounted) to examine ecological characteristics and patterns. At the watershed scale, FLBS has used multi-spectral imagery from both satellites and aircraft, in concert with on-the-ground Acoustic Doppler Profilers which can measure water depth, velocity and sediment movement, to develop techniques to classify, quantify, and map aquatic and riparian habitat. Additionally, by using Light Detection and Radar (LIDAR), FLBS researchers have constructed detailed topographic maps and information about river flood plains and lake shorelines.

At the global scale, FLBS researchers have worked extensively with NASA’s satellite remote sensing programs (eg Landsat, MODIS and SMAP) and have been involved in the development and oversight of new sensors and analysis techniques. These technologies have resulted in extensive discoveries pertaining to the earth’s soil moisture, drought, freeze thaw cycles, and climate variability.

Grizzly bears dig extensively for bulbs of glacier lilies growing in alpine meadows and, in the process, control soil nitrogen dynamics and meadow plant assemblages, including the subsequent abundance and nutritive quality of the lilies. This is an original demonstration of large herbivore influences on terrestrial ecosystems.

The FLBS Kodiak brown bear project is focused on understanding how bears of Southwest Kodiak Island, Alaska, behave in response to changing sockeye salmon abundance. The work, conducted by FLBS graduate student Will Deacy and other volunteers, is focused around Karluk Lake, the heart of the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge. Although the refuge was established to protect Kodiak’s famous large bears and robust salmon runs, both bear and salmon numbers have been declining. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) data show that bear densities in the Karluk watershed have declined more than 45% in ten years, and this shocking population reduction created a need to better understand the relationship between salmon and bears. Plentiful salmon are critical to maintaining healthy populations of large Kodiak brown bears, so we have embarked upon a cooperative research program with the FWS using innovative field techniques to collect high resolution bear and salmon data across a suite of streams. To do this, we developed a process using remote time-lapse camera systems to count the number of salmon and bears at each of the streams around Karluk Lake.

The Fish and Wildlife Service reached out to the Flathead Lake Biological Station (FLBS) to tackle this project because of our experience researching salmon ecosystems around the Pacific. Both the FWS and FLBS have made significant investments over the first three years of this project. We are now looking for partners to complete the final two years of the project and to collect the data needed to fully understand the impacts of salmon declines on Kodiak bears. While many bears still roam the Kodiak wilderness, long-term data suggests their numbers are declining in parallel with salmon abundance. It is critical that we understand the drivers of the salmon-bear relationship to protect this pristine landscape and the giants that roam it.

Long-term research on Sierra dome spiders that live on the Station grounds has demonstrated a novel evolutionary intricacy of animal behavior. Females choose a mate from a wide variety of male suitors that brawl with one another on the delicate dome-shaped webs built by the female. Mate choice by females determines the success or failure of the population.