Long-Term Monitoring Strategies for Large River Systems; Providing A Long-Term Context to Fish Management Strategies

The lack of long-term natural resource monitoring data can make it difficult to assess the effects of fisheries management actions over time.  Without strategic long-term monitoring, baseline conditions for ecosystem structure and function cannot be determined and used as a reference to evaluate long-term variations in biological (e.g., invasive species introductions), chemical (e.g., contaminants), and physical (e.g., climate change) parameters on trends in fisheries.  Establishing long term monitoring programs on large river systems poses many challenges. For instance, characterizing the status and trends of resources in large rivers poses many financial and logistic challenges because of the vast geographic area they encompass and the diversity of habitats and biota that need to be sampled. Large river systems typically traverse multiple jurisdictions and have many stakeholders, each with specific interests and data needs. Therefore, developing a common framework of informational needs is difficult.  In this symposium, we will gather experts that have experience with long-term monitoring in large river systems, either establishing or conducting monitoring activities, or that have conducted studies that provide an example of why collecting information for long-term monitoring programs in large river systems is important.  Our objective is to demonstrate the need for and benefits of long-term natural resource monitoring programs in large rivers, as well as some of the complexities and special considerations associated with establishing these programs.