Global Importance and Threats to Floodplain Fisheries: Potential Mitigation Measures to Reconnect Floodplains, Including Synergistic Benefits of Working with other Water Resource Sectors (Symposium)

Monday, August 22, 2016: 1:00 PM-5:00 PM
Chicago C (Sheraton at Crown Center)
Worldwide floodplain rivers are highly imperiled but remain one of the most productive ecosystems in ‎the world because of supplementary nutrients associated with landscape inundation.   Anthropogenic ‎disturbance in the form of dam construction, levee creation, and channelization, coupled with ‎landscape development for agriculture and urban development, have altered natural processes and ‎interactions between mainstem rivers and the associated low lying floodplains. These modifications ‎have negatively influenced native biota and ecosystem functioning that may depend on the mosaic of ‎lentic and lotic floodplain habitats. Specifically, many river fishes exhibit migratory patterns and have ‎developed life-history traits to exploit seasonally predictable flood pulses that inundate floodplains. In ‎addition, floodplain resident fishes contribute massively to food production and biodiversity. Despite ‎studies demonstrating the relative benefits of floodplain connectivity to river fishes and the ‎importance of floodplain fisheries to food security and livelihoods, socioeconomic demand and ‎political regulatory restrictions limit floodplain connection availability to fishes and consequent ‎productivity of these systems.  Our intent with this symposium is to provide a forum for scientists ‎throughout the world to provide case-study examples of the relative benefits of floodplain inundation ‎to fish and fisheries in the presence of the aforementioned political and development constraints. ‎

Moderators:
Quinton Phelps and Ian G. Cowx
Organizers:
Quinton Phelps and Ian Cowx
1:00 PM
Introductory Remarks
1:00 PM
Confronting centuries of change: a synopsis of restoration challenges for Midwestern Rivers Jason DeBoer, Ilinois Natural History Survey; Douglas Blodgett, The Nature Conservancy; Robin DeBruyne, USGS; Jason Fischer, USGS; Shannon Fisher, Minnesota State University, Mankato; Andrea Fritts, USGS; Mark Fritts, USFWS; Heath Hagy, Illinois Natural History Survey; Mark Hempel, Missouri Department of Conservation; Jeffrey Janvrin, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources; Christine Klein, University of Florida; Dan Mays, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians; Edward F. Roseman, USGS Great Lakes Science Center; Jacob Schwoerer, Missouri Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Missouri-Columbia; T.D. VanMiddlesworth, North Carolina Division of Marine Fisheries
1:20 PM
Floodplain Ecosystem Productivity on a Large Restricted River: Warm Season Flooding on the Mississippi Molly Sobotka, Missouri Department of Conservation; Quinton Phelps, Missouri Department of Conservation
1:40 PM
Development and Potential Use of Broad-Scale Inundation Metrics to Evaluate the Role of Floodplain Inundation on Fishes in the Lower Missouri River Kristen Bouska, USGS - Upper Midwest Environmental Science Center; Garth Lindner, Missouri Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit, University of Missouri; Edward Bulliner, U.S. Geological Survey; Craig P. Paukert, USGS Missouri Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit; Robert B. Jacobson, U.S. Geological Survey
2:20 PM
A Systematic Evaluation of Flood Pulse Effects on 22 Exploited Fish Taxa of Amazonian River-Floodplains Jesse Olsen, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Leandro Castello, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University; Vandick Batista, Universidade Federal de Alagoas
2:40 PM
Demise of the Mekong Delta: Death By a 1000 Cuts Ian G. Cowx, University of Hull
3:00 PM
Monday Afternoon Break
3:20 PM
Floods and Fish Migration; A Fishery's Response to Flood Management Sui Chian Phang, The Ohio State University; Sarah Laborde, The Ohio State University; Mark Moritz, The Ohio State University; Roland Ziebe, University of Maroua; Brandon Mohr, The Ohio State University; Nathaniel Henry, The Ohio State University; Michael Durand, The Ohio State University; Bryan Mark, The Ohio State University; Ningchuan Xiao, The Ohio State University; Saidou Kari, CARPA; Alfonso Fernandez, The Ohio State University; Apoorva Shastry, The Ohio State University; Asmita Murumkar, The Ohio State University; Ian Hamilton, The Ohio State University
3:40 PM
Floodplain Connectivity, and Ecological Blessing or a Curse Mark Hempel, University of Hull; Quinton Phelps, Missouri Department of Conservation; Ian G. Cowx, University of Hull
4:00 PM
Use of a Backwater Lake with Restored Lateral Hydrologic Connectivity By Invasive Bighead and Silver Carp Alison Coulter, Southern Illinois University; Doug Schultz, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources; Elizabeth Tristano, Southern Illinois University; Marybeth K. Brey, U.S. Geological Survey; James E. Garvey, Southern Illinois University
4:20 PM
Expectations and Insights about Large River Floodplain Restorations: Floods, Invasive Species and Stakeholder Tradeoffs Andrew F. Casper, Illinois River Biological Station, Illinois Natural History Survey, Havana Field Office; Richard E. Sparks, University of Illinois; Heath M. Hagy, University of Illinois; Keenan Dungey, University of Illinois Springfield; Michael J. Lemke, University of Illinois Springfield; K. Douglass Blodgett, The Nature Conservancy; Jeffery Walk, The Nature Conservancy; Maria A. Lemke, The Nature Conservancy
4:40 PM
Discussion
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