A publication of the North American Lake Management Society

LakeLineVolume 34, No. 3 • Fall 2014

Terminal Lakes

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Bloomington, IN Bloomington, 47405-1701 IN Bloomington,

PAID 1315 E. Tenth Street Tenth E. 1315

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NONPROFIT ORG. NONPROFIT NORTH AMERICAN LAKE AMERICAN NORTH

Tampa, Florida November 12 – 14, 2014

NALMS and the Florida Lake Management Society invite you to join us for NALMS 2014 at the Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina in Tampa, Florida. NALMS 2014 offers an opportunity to explore old Florida habitats, springs, rivers and beaches. Florida is a world-class destination where visitors can enjoy the attractions as well as the arts, history and Hispanic culture of west central Florida and its sub-tropical splendor. Tampa provides an opportunity to bring together lake managers, regulators, educators, researchers, students and corporate partners from around the continent and the world to share the results of research and management, to exchange ideas and information, and to learn about advancements in technology, management, and knowledge.

Tentative Schedule Monday, November 10 NALMS Board of Directors Meeting

Tuesday, November 11 Workshops NALMS New Member Reception Ybor City Mojito Mambo

Wednesday, November 12 Opening Plenary Session Technical and Poster Sessions Exhibits Open NALMS Membership Meeting Exhibitors’ Reception

Thursday, November 13 Clean Lakes Classic Technical and Poster Sessions Exhibits Open Awards Reception and Banquet

Friday, November 14 Technical and Poster Sessions Exhibits Open

Hosted by the Florida Lake Management Society An Affiliate of NALMS Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 1 Workshops and Tours We will be offering a variety of full-day workshops and a field tour on Tuesday preceding the conference. These workshops provide attendees the opportunity for a more in-depth focus on a topic of interest, and many will provide hands-on experience.

Tuesday Workshops • Collection, Identification, Ecology and Control of Nuisance Freshwater Algae Technical Program • Internal Phosphorus Loading • Lake & Pond Phosphorus Inactivation & Interception The NALMS 2014 Program Committee is planning a top- notch array of presentations on diverse aspects of lakes, Tuesday Tour ponds, reservoirs, their watersheds, and their many users and • Tour of Lake Apopka and World’s Largest Off-Line Alum inhabitants. Below is a sample of key topics, but please check Treatment Project the symposium website regularly for up-to-date program information. Visit the NALMS website, www.nalms.org, for more information and pricing. Proposed Sessions • Springs and Coastal Rivers Assessment and Management • In-Lake Restoration and Management Techniques • Innovative Watershed Strategies For Nutrient Control • National and Regional Lake Assessment • Lake Management Case Studies • Sustainability of Water Supply and Lakes • Harmful Algal Blooms • Invasive Species Management • Stormwater Management • Alum Treatment Technologies and Approaches • Fish and Wildlife Habitat Improvement • Large Lake Systems Management and Restoration • Aquatic Plant Ecology and Management • Data Management and Technologies • Managing Reservoirs for Riparian Habitats and Protected Species • International Perspectives on Lake Management • Citizen Science and Monitoring

Symposium Theme The theme of NALMS’ 2014 International Symposium features both watershed and in-lake management and research efforts that can provide more near-term meaningful results. With seemingly endless water features and equally abundant water resource management challenges, Florida is uniquely positioned to host a discussion of these issues and to share national and international approaches and solutions.

2 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE Special Events Ybor City Mojito Mamba

Tuesday, November 11

This year, our traditional symposium-eve social gathering will take us a short trolley ride from the hotel to Ybor City, a National Historic Landmark District which was established by cigar manufacturers and primarily inhabited by immigrants from Spain, Cuba, and Italy. In recent years portions of the neighborhood have been redeveloped into a night club and entertainment district.

Exhibitor Reception

Important Deadlines Wednesday, November 12

August 15, 2014 NALMS, the Symposium Host Committee and our exhibitors Registration and payment from presenters of accepted invite you to join us in kicking off the symposium and abstracts due. welcoming attendees to Tampa. Take time to relax, view the poster displays and visit with the exhibitors and fellow September 5, 2014 attendees. Early bird registration deadline. Clean Lakes Classic 5k Run/Walk October 9, 2014 Last day conference hotel rate available. Thursday, November 13

The annual Clean Lakes Classic features a route just outside October 31, 2014 of the hotel along the bay. You need not be a runner to Regular registration deadline. participate! All pre-registered participants receive a t-shirt as part of the sign-up fee.

NALMS Awards Reception & Banquet

Thursday, November 13

NALMS’ Annual Awards Reception & Banquet is the climax of the Society’s year as members and friends of the society are honored for their work and achievements over the last year. Awards are presented for Technical Merit, Outstanding Corporation (Jim Flynn Award) and Friends of NALMS and are capped off with our most prestigious award, the “Secchi Disk Award,” which honors the NALMS member who has made the most significant contributions to the goals and objectives of the Society.

Contact Information Symposium Host Committee Chair Michael Perry | [email protected]

Symposium Program Chair Sergio Duarte | [email protected]

Symposium Sponsorship/Exhibitor Chair Brian Catanzaro | [email protected]

General Conference, Exhibitor & Sponsorship Information NALMS Office | 608-233-2836 | www.nalms.org Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 3 Hotel and Transportation NALMS and the symposium host committee welcome you to sunny Tampa, Florida! The Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel and Marina is a world-class hotel that overlooks Tampa Bay in the heart of Downtown Tampa. Nearby Ybor City, the Florida Aquarium, the Tampa Bay History Center and other attractions are within a short walk or can be reached by trolley making Tampa a perfect destination for work and play. Hotel Information

Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina 700 South Florida Avenue Tampa, Florida 813-221-4900 | tampawaterside.com • Room rates are $129 for single occupancy plus tax. • Government rate rooms are available. • The conference rate is available until October 9, 2014

Transportation Information

Tampa International Airport is served by 19 airlines with daily direct flights from 75 destinations in the United States, Canada and beyond. The Tampa Marriott Waterside Hotel & Marina does not offer an airport shuttle service, but is a short 15-20 minute ride via SuperShuttle.

Photo Credits Page 1: Experience Kissimmee (top), Alain (bottom) Page 2: Ken Wagner (left), Ricardo Mangual (right), Stefano (bottom) Page 3: Holmes Palacios (top left), Kim Hill (bottom left), Todd Tietjen (bottom right) Page 4: Dean Beyett (left), William Verbeek (right), Robert Du Bois (bottom)

Visit www.nalms.org to register for NALMS 2014!

We’ll see you in Tampa! 4 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE ake ine Contents L L Published quarterly by the North American Lake Management Society (NALMS) as a medium for exchange and communication among all those Volume 34, No. 3 / Fall 2014 interested in lake management. Points of view expressed and products advertised herein do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of NALMS or its Affiliates. Mention of trade names and commercial products shall not constitute 1 NALMS 2014 Symposium Information an endorsement of their use. All rights reserved. Standard postage is paid at Bloomington, IN and 6 From the Editor additional mailing offices. 7 From the President NALMS Officers President Terry McNabb Terminal Lakes Immediate Past-President Ann Shortelle 8 Introducing Terminal Lakes President-Elect 11 Walker Lake – Terminal Lake at the Brink Reed Green Secretary 15 The Salton Sea; An Uncertain Future for California’s Largest Sara Peel Lake Treasurer Michael Perry

21 Mono Lake: Streams taken and Given Back, But Still NALMS Regional Directors Waiting Region 1 Wendy Gendron Region 2 Chris Mikolajczyk 25 More Than Meets the Eye: Managing Salinity in Great Salt Region 3 Imad Hannoun Region 4 Jason Yarbrough Lake, Utah Region 5 Melissa Clark Region 6 Julie Chambers Region 7 Jennifer Graham 30 Lake Abert, OR: A Terminal Lake Under Extreme Water Region 8 Craig Wolf Region 9 Todd Tietjen Stress Region 10 Frank Wilhelm Region 11 Anna DeSellas 34 Owens Lake – From Dustbowl to Mosaic of Salt Water Region 12 Ron Zurawell At-Large Nicki Bellezza Habitats Student At-Large Lindsey Witthaus Lake Winnemucca and Pyramid: One Gone, One Saved 38 LakeLine Staff Editor: William W. Jones Advertising Manager: Philip Forsberg 43 Production: Parchment Farm Productions Student Corner Printed by: Metropolitan Printing Service Inc.

47 Affiliate & Other News ISSN 0734-7978 ©2014 North American 48 Literature Search Lake Management Society 4510 Regent Street Suite 2A Madison, WI 53705 (All changes of address should go here.) Permission granted to reprint with credit. Advertisers Index Address all editorial inquiries to: William Jones 1305 East Richland Drive Aquarius Systems, Inc. 38 Bloomington, IN 47408 Tel: 812/334-3485 Beagle Bioproducts 14 [email protected] Marrone Bio Innovations BC Address all advertising inquiries to: Medora Corporation 24 Philip Forsberg PhycoTech 46 NALMS PO Box 5443 Scientific Diving International 24 Madison, WI 53705-0443 On the cover: SePRO IFC Tel: 608/233-2836 Tufa towers in Mono Lake, California. Photo Fax: 608/233-3186 Vertex Water Features 33 [email protected] by David B. Herbst.

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 5 From Bill Jones the Editor

any quarts of blueberries and green beans have been frozen, In Memoriam Mthe last of the tomatoes are processing in the Lowell Klessig canner as I write this, and it looks to NALMS and lake management lost an be a bumper crop of important voice and cherished friend with winter squash. The the death of Lowell Klessig on August 8, mild temperatures 2014, following a courageous battle with and timely rains in Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. He died at his Indiana this summer beloved New Hopestead Farm in the Town have nourished the of New Hope, WI, surrounded by family. most abundant gardens we’ve had in Lowell’s doctoral dissertation served as the years. Unfortunately this hasn’t been the foundation for Wisconsin’s Inland Lake case in all of North America. The Western Management Law. He had a long career with drought and water rationing in California the University of Wisconsin-Extension as a have been in the news all summer and Lake District Specialist. He crisscrossed the state to help lake property owners and appear to be the worst in memory. The county boards develop stewardship plans and lake districts. He taught courses at extended drought provides a fitting the University of Wisconsin-Madison and at UW-Stevens Point. backdrop for this issue of LakeLine, with While sharing beers with a group of colleagues following a day of the theme of “Terminal Lakes.” presentations at the 1979 North American Lake Management Conference in Kudos to Joe Eilers and Ron Larson East Lansing, MI, Lowell asked if anyone would be interested in working to who conceived the “Terminal Lakes” create a professional lake management society. As a result of Lowell’s vision theme and solicited articles for this issue. and leadership, and the steering committee he chaired, the North American Lake Joe and Ron have written an excellent Management Society was born the following year at the 1980 International introduction to the theme articles of Symposium on Inland Waters and Lake Restoration in Portland, ME. Lowell this issue so I will simply introduce the served on the NALMS Board for six years. other articles here. Before I do, however, Lowell was a prolific writer. His essays on lake management, stewardship, be certain to gaze long at the many conservation, and farming were infused with a commonsense and heartfelt spectacular images of terminal lakes philosophy. His 2010 article for LakeLine entitled, “A Tale of Two Spiritual contained in these articles. Lakes” was particularly thought-provoking and all Lowell. A link to this article is NALMS President Terry McNabb on the NALMS webpage. writes his final LakeLine message in On a personal note, Lowell was a teacher, mentor, colleague, and inspiration to this issue. Has it been a year already? In this editor and to many, many others. He inspired many to not only better manage “Affiliate News” we hear from California lakes and watersheds, but also to see the spiritual side of lakes. One of Lowell’s and Washington. Zach Slagle writes favorite quotations was from Sigurd Olson, who died in his small woodland cabin about what makes a successful bass nest where the following page was found in his typewriter: in this issue’s “Student Corner.” We close, as usual, with “Literature Search.” “A NEW ADVENTURE IS ABOUT TO BEGIN. I KNOW IT IS GOING TO BE Remember to vote in this year’s A GOOD ONE.” NALMS elections. I look forward to seeing you all in Tampa! c Here’s wishing Lowell a good one, too.

~ Bill Jones

6 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE From Terry McNabb the President

ell, that went by fast…by the water sources to over 400,000 people for the southern portion of the valley. I drove time you read this I will have nearly a week because of Microcystin by miles of citrus orchards that were Wnearly finished a year as your toxins present. If you had the chance to dead with the trees being backhoed out president and will see the satellite image that Bluewater of the ground and piled for disposal. Our be gearing up for Satellite published this past April, you expertise as managers of these critical the annual NALMS would have seen the scope of the impact water resources becomes more important Symposium. This of spring runoff on a lake the size of Lake every day and NALMS plays a key role in has been an exciting Erie. It’s probable that this sediment load keeping us informed and involved. year as your fearless carried with it the nutrients necessary This issue of LakeLine focuses leader. to help drive the square miles of toxic on lakes that are experiencing impacts I’m grateful for cyanobacteria blooms in this Great Lake because of a lack of available water. It the opportunity to that led to this problem for the residents should be a good read and I am looking serve NALMS and for the support of of Northeastern Ohio. This same scenario forward to seeing it in the mailbox. our Board of Directors and Executive can and probably does play out in many So thanks again for a good year at Committee. They all do hard work to keep other areas where we work throughout the helm and I am looking forward to the Society moving forward. I also gained North America. Our efforts become continuing to work with the Board for a special appreciation for the work of our more important than ever as we are the another year in an official capacity and two staff members, Greg and Phil. I have collection of experts whose mission is to staying involved in the years beyond. been involved in the leadership of another help understand and correct such impacts. similar professional society that had no This has been a very interesting staff and I can tell you this makes a huge year out West where I work. In the Terry McNabb has been working in the field of difference. This year they did double duty Pacific Northwest we are blessed with lake and aquatic plant management for about 40 putting on the National Water Quality an abundance of water. Even too much years and specializes in management of invasive Monitoring Conference, which can be at times. In California, however, we aquatic species. He is a graduate of Michigan a bigger event than our meeting, and are seeing firsthand the impacts of the State University and works primarily in the Western they are gearing up to get us into Tampa severe drought that is impacting the United States. He lives in Bellingham, Washington, this November. They do excellent work. Southwestern U.S. We have clients that with his family. c Other unsung heroes are: Jeff Schloss, are trying to drill wells to maintain lake who organizes our hotel and conference levels through accessing their water arrangements – that is a hard job and he rights. We have seen cyanobacteria does it well; Bill Jones, who makes sure blooms in the main reservoirs at the end Please take a moment to ensure we get LakeLine four times a year and it’s of the California Aqueduct that supplies 4 NALMS has your worth reading when you receive it; and Al million people (and I got to help fix that) Sosiak, who just took over the important and we have seen a spike in the closures correct email and mailing job of editing our Journal. Probably of beaches and lakes to recreation because address. Log into the member- the best part of this job was getting to of cyanobacteria blooms that had not know these people and appreciate their been experienced in these systems before. only area ofwww.nalms.org to commitment. Probably the most stunning sight to me view the information This has been an interesting year with was driving from San Francisco to Los respect to lake management. This month Angeles through the Central Valley of we currently have on file. we saw the first major U.S. potable water California, the breadbasket of our nation, utility shut down because of algal toxins and the place where most of our winter present in delivered drinking water. As I vegetables are grown. There were over Send any corrections to am sure you have seen, the City of Toledo, 100 miles of dry and exposed farmland [email protected]. OH, was forced to provide alternative and empty irrigation delivery canals in

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 7 Terminal Lakes

Introducing Terminal Lakes Joe Eilers and Ron Larson

Study Lakes

akes tend to be among the more ephemeral features of the landscape Land generally are formed and disappear rapidly on a geological time frame. However, to see groups of lakes disappear within a lifetime is typically not a natural phenomenon. Here in Oregon, we’ve witnessed the desiccation of what was formerly a 16-mile-long lake in a little over a decade. Endorehic lakes, commonly referred to as terminal lakes because they lack an outlet, are among the most vulnerable of lakes to human intervention. Because terminal lakes are usually located in arid environments where water is extremely valuable, they are the first to lose among the competing forces for water. But that doesn’t have to be the case. In some respects, terminal lakes are far easier to restore than eutrophic/hypereutrophic systems. No expensive alum treatments, no dredging, no chemicals . . . just add water and life returns: but as those in West know, “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.” And fight we must. In this issue of LakeLine, we describe a series of terminal lakes in the western United States starting with the least saline lake among the group, Walker Lake, and ending with Lake Winnemucca, which was desiccated in the 20th century (Figure 1). Like all lakes, each of these has a unique story to relate with different Figure 1. Terminal lakes in the western United States described in this issue. chemistry and biota. The loss of Lake Winnemucca is an informative tale, but it a wider audience and reach a solution migration when the birds replenish fat is not necessarily the inevitable outcome that ensures adequate water to save the reserves. For waterbirds, many western for these western terminal lakes. resource. And what is there to save? terminal lakes provide food in the form of There are successful templates, such These terminal lakes are among the easily taken brine shrimp and alkali flies, as Pyramid and Mono lakes to serve as most productive habitats on the continent, both of which can be highly abundant. guides for how these lakes can be saved and are especially important to waterbirds, As a result, many western U.S. terminal or restored. The key involves local effort such as avocets, gulls, stilts, and various lakes attract large numbers of shorebirds to bring the problem to the attention of small shorebirds like phalaropes, during (Table 1). The Salton Sea and adjacent

8 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE that belong to all of us (McClurg 2005). A World-Wide Problem Table 1. Examples of Western U.S. Terminal Lakes that are Key Shorebird Sites Expect to see this legal strategy applied Although this issue of LakeLine in upcoming conflicts involving highly presents selected lakes from the western Site Approximate Peak flawed western water laws and protection United States (there are dozens of others Shorebird Numbers of terminal lakes. that we couldn’t include in this issue), in Thousands The current trajectory of saline lakes terminal lakes around the world are is largely toward desiccation (Figure 2). in jeopardy caused by diversions and Great Salt Lake, UT 250-1,000 The combination of diversion of inflows changes in climate. One of the most Lake Abert, OR 100-300 and climate change presents two powerful visible and tragic cases of shrinking Salton Sea, CA 100-250 forces that cause many terminal lakes terminal lakes is the South Aral Sea, Lahontan Basin, NV 100-250 to disappear. As shown in Figure 2, the which is now only 25 percent of its Mono Lake, CA 50-100 longer the line and the steeper the slope Goose Lake, CA & OR 30-50 former area. Urmia Lake, an enormous Summer Lake, OR 30-50 the more likely the terminal lake will lake in Iran, is faced with similar Harney Basin Lakes, OR 30-50 become a playa (dry lake bed). Even the problems, although efforts are underway Klamath Basin Lakes, CA & OR 20-30 very deep saline lakes are not immune to secure additional sources of freshwater (c.f. Walker Lake), but they do offer for the basin (Zarghami 2011). Scores Source: Oring et al. 2009; www.ebird.org additional time to seek action and prevent of terminal lakes in the interior of loss. areas in southern California provides habitat for nearly 400 species of birds and is an important wintering site for some waterbirds. Lake Abert, a hypersaline lake in southern Oregon, hosted several hundred thousand Wilson’s phalaropes, a small migratory shorebird, until the salinity got too high for its primary food, brine shrimp, in August 2013. The Great Salt Lake, one of the world’s largest saline lakes, also supports an abundant bird population. Although fish are largely absent from the lake, the state of Utah derives millions of dollars in revenue annually from managing another type of “fishery” for brine shrimp cysts (eggs).

Lake Trajectories And what happens when we fail to protect these important lakes? The story of Lake Owens describes the costs to society when the inflow to a major terminal lake is diverted to Los Angeles, leaving behind a playa that is now the single largest source of air pollution (from particulates) in the United States. Mono Lake escaped a similar fate when a group of folks intervened and halted the City of Los Angeles from desiccating this lake. A similar approach was employed to slow the salinization of Walker Lake, NV. Figure 2. Vector plot of the terminal study lakes showing changes in maximum depth and salinity. Lawsuits filed against the USEPA and the The circles denote historical conditions and the arrows represent current conditions. Mono Lake state of Nevada under the Clean Water Act with the reversing arrow is the only one of the study lakes on a path to recovery, although Pyramid forced the agencies to establish a TMDL Lake has stabilized. The intersection of lakes Winnemucca, Owens, and Abert with the 1 on the Y axis represents slightly different conditions for each of these lakes. Lake Winnemucca is totally dry for Walker Lake based on total dissolved except for transient puddles left by rainstorms. Owens Lake is dry throughout much of its former solids (as a surrogate for salt). In both lake bed, with shallow brine ponds covering part of the lake bed, and a small remnant freshwater cases, the plaintiffs employed a powerful pool on the west side of the lake. Lake Abert, as of this writing, is nearly desiccated, with a legal principle, the Public Trust Doctrine, small pool of red brine in the deepest portion of the lake. The Great Salt Lake (GSL) has shown which recognizes that government entities considerable fluctuations in the last 150 years, largely associated with wet and dry periods, but no have a responsibility to protect resources discernible trends.

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 9 China have disappeared and others are Reisner, M. 1993. Cadillac Desert: The Williams, W.D. 2001. Anthropogenic receding rapidly (Liu et al. 2013). Africa American West and Its Disappearing salinisation of inland waters. and Australia are also experiencing Water. Revised Edition. Penguin Books, Hydrobiologia, 466:329-337. accelerated desertification and loss of New York. 583 pp. Zarghami, M. 2011. Effective watershed terminal lakes (Williams 2001). Lake Stringfellow, K. 2011. Greetings from management; Case study of Urmia Chad, once the fourth-largest lake in the Salton Sea: Folly and Intervention Lake, Iran. Lake & Reserv Mgmt, Walker Lake – Africa, has shrunk so rapidly in the last in the Southern California Landscape, 27:87-94. several decades that it has been classified 1905-2005. Center for American Places, Terminal Lake at the Brink as an ecological catastrophe by the Incorporated and University of Chicago United Nations. Specialized biological Press. Chicago. 152 pp. Joe Eilers is a communities that evolved with these professional hydrologist David B. Herbst, R. Bruce Medhurst, Ian D. Bell, and Graham Chisholm water bodies are jeopardized as well. References and limnologist with Enjoy these stories from the West Liu, H., Y. Yin, S. Piao, F. Zhao, MaxDepth Aquatics, Inc. and if you want to help protect or restore M. Engelsand and P. Ciais. 2013. in Bend, Oregon. He has some of these resources, there are many Disappearing lakes in semiarid northern been working on lakes in avenues for you to participate, some of China: drivers and environmental the western United States which are listed below. impact. Environ Sci & Technol, 47: since 1986. Walker Lake. 12107−12114. www.walkerlakenv.org McClurg, S. 2005. Remnants of the past: Ron Larson, a recently Management challenges of terminal retired aquatic biologist Salton Sea lakes. Western Water, pp. 4-13. with the U.S. Fish and www.saltonsea.ca.gov/ Oring, L.W., L. Neel and K.E. Oring. Wildlife Service, is striving Mono Lake 2009. Intermountain West Regional to bring attention to the www.monolake.org Shorebird Plan. Intermountain West loss of key shorebird Joint Venture. Missoula, Montana. 55 p. habitat at Lake Abert, Great Salt Lake Oregon (photo credit, Kathy http://www.fogsl.org/ Larson). c Lake Abert www.lakeabert.org Owens Lake http://www.ovcweb.org Pyramid Lake http://www.pyrimidlake.us (LITERATURE SEARCH . . . continued from page 48) Lake Winnemucca North American Journal of Fisheries Management (no advocates) Kirk, J.P., K.L. Manuel, K.L. and S.D. Lamprecht. 2014. Long-term population response For further reading (and movie) of triploid grass carp stocked in Piedmont and Coastal Plain reservoirs to control enjoyment about terminal lakes – and LA hydrilla. N Amer J Fisheries Manage, 34(4): 795-801. water) consider the following: Policy Studies Journal Chinatown. 1974. Movie starring Jack Koontz, T.M. and J. Newig. 2014. From planning to implementation: top‐down and Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John bottom‐up approaches for collaborative water management. Policy Studies J, 42(3): Huston. Roman Polanski, director. 416-442. Robert Towne, screenplay. Paramount Pictures. Society and Natural Resources Hammer, U.T. 1986. “Saline Lake Henareh Khalyani, A, A.L. Mayer and E.S. Norman. 2014. Water flows toward power: Ecosystems of the World.” socioecological degradation of Lake Urmia, Iran. Society and Nat Resour, 27(7): 759- Monographiae Biologicae (Book 59), 767. Dr. W. Junk Publishers. 632 pp. Hoffman, A. 2014. Mono Lake: From Brownlee, M.T. J., J.C. Hallo, D.D. Moore, R.B. Powell and B.A. Wright. 2014. Dead Sea to Environmental Treasure. Attitudes toward Water Conservation: The Influence of Site-Specific Factors and Beliefs University of New Mexico Press. in Climate Change. Society and Nat Resour, 27(9): 964-982. Albuquerque.168 pp. Melack, J.M., R. Jellison and D.B. Herbst (Eds). 2001. Saline Lakes. William (Bill) Jones is LakeLine’s editor and a former NALMS president, and clinical professor (retired) Developments in Hydrobiology from Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs. He can be reached at: 1305 East 162. Kluwer Academic Publishers. Richland Drive, Bloomington, IN 47408; e-mail: [email protected]. c Dordrecht. 347 pp.

10 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE Terminal Lakes

Walker Lake – Terminal Lake at the Brink

David B. Herbst, R. Bruce Medhurst, Ian D. Bell, and Graham Chisholm

Setting ast bodies of water have filled and ebbed in desert basins of North VAmerica as ice ages have come and gone. Pluvial Lake Lahontan once covered much of the western Great Basin during periods of its most recent highest stand in lake level about 14,000 years ago (Figure 1). As Lahontan dried over the succeeding millennia it left behind two major lake remnants – Walker and Pyramid Lakes, both in western Nevada. Walker Lake is fed primarily by the Walker River, with its origins in the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada of California, entering at the northern end of the lake. To the west, the lake is bordered by the dry Wasuk Range, and geology of the watershed mixes volcanic and granitic rock types. As in other salt lakes of the western Great Basin, water chemistry is decidedly alkaline, a mix of carbonates, chloride, and sulfate salts of sodium at a pH near 10 and total dissolved solutes approaching 25 g/L (seawater is roughly 35 g/L, but mostly sodium and chloride with pH typically around 8). Walker Lake is monomictic, stratifying in spring and mixing in fall, with thermocline at a mean depth of about 10 m and maximum depth near 22 m, and a surface elevation of 1198 m (updated from Herbst et al. 2013a).

History of Native Fish Figure 1. Map of the extent of Pleistocene Lake Lahontan and Lake Russell showing locations of Historical evidence gathered from present-day remnants of Walker Lake and Mono Lake. lake-bottom sediment cores indicate that Walker Lake has become very shallow (LCT) were once distributed throughout genetically distinct stocks (Peacock et al. and possibly dried several times since Lake Lahontan, but with the drying and 2010), all of which are obligate stream becoming isolated from Lahontan. During recession of Lake Lahontan in the late spawners. Those having access to lake these dry periods, which often lasted Pleistocene-early Holocene, the LCT habitats can live 5-14 years and can hundreds of years, native fish were able to became isolated within river systems reach a size of 125 cm and 18 kg, making find refuge in the Walker River until the ending in terminal lakes in northern this iconic fish a prized catch that once lake refilled and salinities were suitable Nevada, eastern California, and southern gave Walker Lake renown as a popular for them to return. Lahontan Cutthroat Oregon. During 9,000 to 11,000 years recreational fishery that is now gone. Trout, Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawii, of isolation LCT have diverged into four Natural spawning runs of LCT began

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 11 to diminish in the mid-1800s with the disappeared with rising salinity (Beutel Tanypus grodhausi, tolerant of oxygen- development of agricultural diversion et al. 2001). At salinities somewhat poor conditions, becomes dominant. Less dams. Large-scale construction of dams reduced from present conditions, abundant benthic invertebrates include the after the turn of the century cut LCT off the nitrogen-fixing cyanobacterium alkali flyEphydra hians, the biting midge to all suitable spawning habitat in the Nodularia spumigena was the dominant Culicoides, the small predatory diving upper river, so extirpating the Walker phytoplankton of the lake. Nodularia beetle Hygrotus masculinus, and aquatic Lake strain of LCT, with the last natural sometimes blooms to high densities oligochaetes. Prior to salinities exceeding spawning runs being documented in the and produces high oxygen demands about 15 g/L, the amphipod Hyalella 1950s. Since that time the Walker River as it dies and decomposes, along with was the most abundant invertebrate of has been stocked with out-of-basin strains other organic particulate matter in the littoral zone, but it too has since of LCT whose origins share elevated the hypolimnion of the stratified lake. disappeared. salinity levels. LCT were listed as This can also be accompanied by the Experiments exposing damselfly endangered in 1970, then reclassified as generation of sometimes-toxic levels nymphs and midge larvae to varied threatened in 1975. of ammonia. During summer warming salinities showed that survival was best at In modern times, upstream of the epilimnion that reduces oxygen levels of salt concentration that occurred agricultural water diversions have resulted availability, the anoxia of the hypolimnion in the past, and the 72-hr LC50 for in a loss of river inflow, a vertical drop can combine to produce an oxygen deficit midges was 25 g/L, just slightly higher in lake level of over 150 feet, and an where fish are “squeezed” to a limited than present day salinity (Herbst et al. increase in salinity from 2.5 g/L to nearly area of suitable habitat at mid-depths 2013b). Damselfly growth and feeding 25 g/L at present (Figure 2). The increased between these surface and bottom layers. rates were significantly reduced between salinity and loss of a river “escape route” The lake bottom environment 20 and 30 g/L, and mortality of smaller for fish that led to the disappearance of consists of anoxic sediments below nymphs showed these early instars even LCT from Walker Lake now threatens the the thermocline, and littoral shallows more vulnerable on average. These population of Tui chub as well. Salinity of mixed rock, sand, and mud where results suggest both that these insects tolerance differs among the various strains aquatic insects and other invertebrates were already stressed and anticipated of LCT, but acclimated and self-sustaining have been found in abundance (Herbst the changes now occurring in population wild stocks suffer lethal effects of salinity et al. 2013a). Extensive macrophyte dynamics. at levels of 14-15.5 g/L (Sedinger et al. beds of the widgeon grass Ruppia In 2010, with lake level falling 2012). occur in summer in the littoral zone and salinity rising above 20 g/L, midge of the lake, densest between 2 to 7 m numbers were low in the fall cohort of Other Aquatic Life and Falling Lake Level depth. Within these beds and on rocky that year and coming into the spring In addition to the mix of native substrates in more shallow water, the generation of 2011 (Figure 3). A deep fish species, the open waters of the lake midge Cricotopus ornatus and damselfly snowpack and high stream runoff in 2011 have been inhabited by zooplankton predator Enallagma clausum have been resulted in rebounding numbers of the including several cladocerans, copepods, most common in recent years. In deeper fall generation of midges and similar and rotifers, some of which have also water of the littoral zone, the midge high recruitment into the 2012 population of damselflies. After this short respite of rising lake levels, prolonged drought conditions in 2012 and continuing into 2014 in the Sierra Nevada have restricted stream flows to less than half of the historic normal runoff. With upstream agricultural irrigation diversions, much less than this reached saline Walker Lake. After a record drought, lake levels continued to drop and salinity increased into ranges that are now threatening the populations of benthic invertebrates in the lake. As of summer 2013, the populations of previously dominant insects of the lake, the midge flyCricotopus and damselfly Enallagma have crashed (Figure 3). These changes are continuing in 2014, with snowpack lagging behind even the drought of the previous two years. As these insect populations disappear at this salinity, there has been an ascendance Figure 2. History of falling lake levels at Walker Lake. of the more salt-tolerant alkali fly. This

12 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE could be re-stocked given the return of river flows and reduced salinity.

Conservation Walker Lake has been the subject of considerable conservation focus, and terminal lakes in Nevada have benefited from being championed by U.S. Senator Harry Reid, who successfully passed the Desert Terminal Lake Act (P.L. 107- 171). Since its original passage in 2002, Senator Reid has been able to amend the Act, including a provision in 2009 that establishes a Walker Basin Restoration Program administered and managed by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). Under the Program, NFWF has been actively acquiring water rights and engaged in revegetation of retired farmland associated with water sales, water conservation measures, and other efforts to protect water in stream for Walker Lake. By 2014, NFWF has acquired approx. 27,000 AF of surface water storage rights, and over 6,300 acres of land from willing sellers for approximately $45.1 million. NFWF has been working through the legal process to Figure 3. Recent population dynamics of midges (Cricotopus), damselflies (Enallagma) and varied protect and transfer the water rights salinity in Walker Lake. marks a transition in ecosystem structure that portends an altered food web (Figure 4), but also shows the conditions necessary for recovering the community that would exist at higher lake levels. As the insects of the lake have been in decline so have the Tui chub. Falling numbers of the remaining fish in the lake over the past several years have now been joined by losses in the fish-eating birds of the lake, notably pelicans and cormorants (Figure 5). While it is tempting to conclude from these developments that the Walker Lake ecosystem is a lost cause, the fact is the lake is recoverable. As observed here and at other lakes of varied salinity, invertebrates can recolonize quickly from refuges in seepage areas around the lake shores or by flight, and hatchery-raised LCT Figure 4. Abundance increase of the more salt-tolerant alkali fly (Ephydra) as salinity rises.

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 13 David Herbst is a research scientist with the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory of the University of California. He has studied the physiology and ecology of saline lake algae and invertebrates of the Great Basin since 1976. His interests extend into the headwater streams of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where he investigates the effects of drought and climate change on watershed ecology.

Bruce Medhurst joined the Herbst lab team at the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Lab in 2001. His research interests Figure 5. Decreased numbers of fish-eating pelicans and cormorants at Walker Lake. have included aquatic toxicology and food web for in stream use to benefit Walker River Herbst, D.B., R.B. Medhurst, S.W. dynamics. He enjoys and Walker Lake. An important victory Roberts and R. Jellison. 2013a. recreating year-round occurred in March 2014 when the Nevada Substratum associations and depth with his family in the vast outdoor laboratory of the State Engineer approved NFWF’s initial distribution of benthic invertebrates Sierra Nevada. application for transfer of approximately in saline Walker Lake, Nevada, USA. 2,200 AF of water rights. Before water Hydrobiologia, 700:61-72. Ian Bell is a laboratory from these water rights flows to the lake, Herbst, D.B., S.W. Roberts and R.B. assistant at the Sierra the Federal Decree Court will review Medhurst. 2013b. Defining salinity Nevada Aquatic Research and rule on the proposed transfer. While limits on the survival and growth of Lab, where he loves the a lengthy process remains to complete benthic insects for the conservation chance to get in the field the objectives of the Program, Walker management of saline Walker Lake, and study Sierra streams Lake is the beneficiary of an active water Nevada, USA. J Insect Conservation, and desert lakes. He acquisition program that is hoped will 17:877-883. will be studying water provide secure and sustained water flows Peacock, M. M., M. L. Robinson, T. resources management through the Walker River system for Walters, H. A. Mathewson and R. at the University of California, Santa Barbara in the the future sustainability of the lake and Perkins. 2010. The evolutionary fall of 2014. ecosystem. significant unit concept and the role of translocated populations in preserving Graham Chisholm, References the genetic legacy of Lahontan co-founder of Great Basin Beutel, M.W., A.J. Horne, J.C. Roth and cutthroat trout. Trans Am Fisheries Soc, Bird Observatory, has been N.J. Barratt. 2001. Limnological effects 139:382–395. active on land and water of anthropogenic desiccation of a large, Sedinger, J.S., E.J. Blomberg, A.W. conservation projects in saline lake, Walker Lake, Nevada. VanDellen and S. Byers. 2012. the Great Basin for the Hydrobiologia, 466:91-105. Environmental and population strain past two decades, helping effects on survival protect and restore lands of Lahontan on the Truckee, Carson, Cutthroat Trout and Walker Rivers, and acquiring in-stream flow in Walker Lake, water rights for Pyramid Lake, the Truckee River, HAB Toxin Testing Nevada: a Bayesian and the Lahontan Valley wetlands. c Microcystin approach. N Am J Results in 48 HOURS! Cylindrospermopsin Fisheries Manage, Saxitoxin 32:515-522. Nodularin

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14 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE Figure Captions

Terminal Lakes

The Salton Sea: An Uncertain Future for California’s Largest Lake

G. Chris Holdren

he Salton Sea, the largest inland • provide a safe, productive environment All of the alternatives that would have waterbody in the state of California, at the Sea for resident and migratory stabilized the Sea surface at 1999 levels Tis facing an uncertain and birds and endangered species; required construction of extensive levee increasingly grim future. A previous • restore recreational uses at the Sea; systems. Estimated construction costs for LakeLine article (Barry and Anderson structures that could withstand projected 2008) covered the history and some other • maintain a viable sport fishery at the earthquakes were in the billions of dollars characteristics of the Sea. This article Sea; and largely because of the numerous faults in will provide additional details on recent • enhance the Sea to provide economic the area. activity and conditions at the Salton Sea. development activities. The uncertainty of future water supplies is also problematic. For many An intensive scientific effort initiated The Past years California had been using more in January 1998, led to a series of Located in Imperial and Riverside water than the amount they were allowed reconnaissance investigations that were Counties, the Salton Sea was once an by the Colorado River compact signed conducted beginning in 1999 to provide important recreational resource. In the by all seven states in the Colorado River the scientific basis for the restoration 1960s, the Salton Sea state recreation basin and the federal government in 1922. effort. The results of many of those area drew more annual visitors than Water demand has continued to grow in reconnaissance studies were reported in Yosemite National Park. Unfortunately, other basin states, resulting in signing of special editions of Lake and Reservoir recreation began to fade following two the Quantification Settlement Agreement Management 23(5) (2007), Hydrobiologia tropical storms in the 1970s that damaged (QSA) in 2003. The QSA restricted 473 (2002) and 604 (2008), and Studies in recreational facilities. California’s use of Colorado River water Avian Biology 27 (2004) Salinity, which had been near the to the 4.4 million acre-ft /yr allowed Reclamation and the State level of 35 g/L found in seawater for under the Colorado River compact, but of California examined dozens of much of the period from the 1920s also allowed for water transfers out of alternatives in an attempt to find one that through the mid-1980s, began to increase the Salton Basin. The main impact of the would meet all of the objectives of the and reached 44 g/L by 1999 (Holdren and QSA on the Sea will result from reduced Reclamation Act, but finding a viable Montaño 2002). Fish kills and outbreaks inflows as water is transferred from alternative was elusive. The immense of avian disease in the 1990s were also the Imperial Valley to San Diego, Los size of the Salton Sea (349 mi2), seismic signs of degradation, but those events did Angeles, and other coastal cities to meet activity in the area, uncertainty over future increase scientific interest in the Sea. the needs of their growing populations. water supply, and other considerations This renewed interest in the Salton Reporting requirements of the drastically limited restoration alternatives. Sea led to the Reclamation Act of 1998 Reclamation Act of 1998 were met in As a result of the size and complexity of (Public Law 105-372), which directed January 2000, when the Department of the system, estimated costs for restoration the Secretary of the Interior, through the the Interior forwarded a draft EIS/EIR measures that would meet all of the goals Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), and several other documents to Congress. of the Salton Sea Restoration Project were to study options for managing the Sea. The Salton Sea also continues to collect in the billions of dollars. The Salton Sea Authority (SSA) was agricultural drainage from extensive The Salton Basin, which contains designated as co-lead for the State of agricultural operations in the Coachella the present-day Salton Sea, is located in a California for the project. The overall and Imperial Valleys. Although a major highly active tectonic region with frequent goals of the Salton Sea Restoration restoration project for the Salton Sea has earthquakes. The area is dominated by Project were to: not been implemented, seven different the San Andreas, Imperial, San Jacinto, Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) • maintain the Sea as a repository of and Elsinore fault systems, and many projects were initiated to improve water agricultural drainage; moderate to large earthquakes occurred in quality by addressing sediment, trash, the Salton Basin over the last 150 years. bacteria, and dissolved oxygen in the

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 15 drains and rivers entering the Salton Sea. Additional information on these TMDLs is available on the State of California, Colorado River Basin Regional Water Quality Control Board web site at: http:// www.waterboards.ca.gov/coloradoriver/ water_issues/programs/tmdl/tmdl_ projects.shtml. An additional TMDL to address nutrient loadings to the Sea is under development.

The Present Water levels from October 1, 1987, when the USGS started to collect daily elevation levels at the Sea, through 2013 are shown in Figure 1. Water levels remained relatively stable through the 1990s but have been dropping steadily since that time. Mitigation water coming from land fallowed by the Imperial Irrigation District as part of the QSA has Figure 1. Salton Sea daily surface elevations, 1 October 1987 - 31 December 2013. helped to slow the decrease, but water levels will soon begin to fall at a faster reacts with dissolved oxygen to form some of the green tide events had led to rate. sulfate, stripping oxygen from the water. the death of millions of fish on single Most monitoring at the Sea was The sulfate then reacts with calcium to days. . curtailed as funding decreased following form gypsum (CaSO4 2H2O). The gypsum Other key findings of Reclamation’s the intense scientific effort in the late crystals give the water a greenish tint that monitoring program include: 1990s. The Imperial Irrigation District can be seen through satellite imagery, • Salinity in the Salton Sea increased continued to collect salinity data and clearly showing the extent of the anoxic from about 44 g/L in 1999 to over 55 the California Department of Fish and area (Figure 2). The oxygen loss during g/L today (Figure 3). Game conducted quarterly net sampling from 2003-2008 to monitor the status and trends of the Salton Sea fisheries. In response to requests for additional water quality information, Reclamation initiated quarterly monitoring in 2004 to provide information on changes in water quality that are occurring as a result of water conservation measures and other projects intended to improve or maintain water quality in the Sea. Monitoring includes profiles for temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, conductivity, and oxidation-reduction potential; major ion concentrations; nutrients; chlorophyll-a; Secchi depth; and total and dissolved organic carbon. Low dissolved oxygen concentrations continue to be a significant problem, with oxygen levels occasionally dropping to < 1 mg/L throughout the entire water column during the summer months. Local residents have long associated fish kills with mixing events referred to as “green tides.” A previous reconnaissance study (Marti-Cardona et al. 2008) found that these events were the result of mixing events that brought sulfide from the Figure 2. MODIS satellite imagery showing the location of the Salton Sea and the extent of a hypolimnion to the surface, where it “green tide.” Also visible is smoke from wildfires. Figure courtesy of Douglas Barnum, USGS.

16 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE chlorophyll-a data are available from 2000-2003. As recently as 1999, the Salton Sea was one of the most productive fisheries in the world (Reidel et al. 2002). A series of fish kills and increases in salinity decimated fish populations between 1999 and 2003. Monitoring conducted by the California Department of Fish and Game found that Tilapia populations reached a minimum in 2003 but increased significantly since that time. The other game fish, orangemouth corvina (Cynoscion xanthulus), croaker (Bairdiella icistia), and sargo (Anisotremus davidsoni) all appear to be extinct in the Sea. None of these species Figure 3. Salton Sea whole lake total dissolved solids concentrations, 1999-2013. have been captured in net samples, totaling 9,449 net hours of effort, since mid-May 2003. In addition, none of these • Suspended solids concentrations health, continue to remain low (1-2 species have been detected in fish kills appear to have decreased in the Alamo µg/L) in the Salton Sea. Selenium or presented by anglers since 2004 (Jack and Whitewater Rivers but remained concentrations in both the Alamo and Crayon, California Department of Fish unchanged in the New River (Figure New Rivers have changed little since and Game, unpublished data). 4). Because of changes in sampling 1999, while Se concentrations in the The USGS, with funding from frequency between the 1999 study Whitewater River have decreased. Reclamation, operated an experimental and the current study, it is hard to tell Average concentrations for all years are Species Habitat Pond complex from 2005 if the differences were the result of 5.4 µg/L, 3.3 µg/L, and 2.0 µg/L for the through 2010 to evaluate the effectiveness the TMDLs that were initiated in the Alamo, New, and Whitewater Rivers, of created habitat for wildlife. The watershed. respectively. primary goals of the SHP project were to • Phosphorus concentrations in the Salton • Chlorophyll-a concentrations have conduct an ecological risk assessment, Sea appear to have increased since varied widely (Figure 6), with an particularly for selenium; to evaluate 1999 while nitrogen concentrations individual station reading as high as 648 avian numerical abundance, species remain relatively unchanged (Figure µg/L in 2007. Variations in chlorophyll diversity, nesting success, recruitment, 5), although concentrations have varied a concentrations are possibly related to and use patterns; to evaluate water, widely from year-to-year. drastic changes in Tilapia (Oreochromis sediments, and aquatic invertebrate • Selenium concentrations, which mozambicus x O. urolepis hornorum) response to blended water; and to evaluate are of particular concern to wildlife populations. Unfortunately, no construction techniques and the durability of levees and islands. The SHP complex, consisting of four ponds each with four islands, was initially flooded in January 2006 and birds began using the pond by May 2006 (Figure 7). Water was delivered to the ponds from the Alamo River and Salton Sea and flowed by gravity through the complex, increasing in salinity as it flowed through the ponds. Results showed that created ponds were capable of creating viable habitat with minimal environmental risks.

The Future Under all options currently being considered, there are three outcomes for the Salton Sea that seem certain: (1) water levels will continue to fall, (2) salinity will continue to increase, which will greatly alter aquatic life in the Sea, Figure 4. Total suspended solids concentrations in rivers entering the Salton Sea, 1999-2013.

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 17 and (3) dust emissions will become an increasing problem as more and more of the current Sea floor is exposed by falling water levels. The State of California released their Final Environmental Impact Statement/ Environmental Impact Report (EIS/ EIR) for the Salton Sea project in 2013 (California DWR/California DFW 2013) in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE). The preferred alternative calls for 3,770 acres of ponds constructed on either side of the New River, with pumped diversion of river water and cascading pond units. The intent of the Species Conservation Habitat (SCH) Project is intended to provide in-kind replacement for near-term habitat losses and to serve as a proof of concept for the restoration of shallow water habitat that supports fish and wildlife currently dependent upon the Sea. The information obtained would be used to measure project effectiveness, to refine operation and management of the ponds, to reduce uncertainties about key issues related to the project, and to serve as a guide for subsequent stages of habitat restoration at the Sea. The SCH Project is not intended to restore the entire Salton Sea, although information obtained from the initial project will guide future restoration efforts. A report by the Pacific Institute (Cohen and Hyun 2006) provided extensive descriptions of the changes that might occur in the Salton Sea in the Figure 5. Salton Sea whole lake nutrient concentrations, 1999-2013. absence of a restoration project. Interested readers can consult that report for more details. Beginning in 2017 when the mitigation water is lost, annual inflows to the Salton Sea will decrease by over 400,000 acre-ft/year compared to pre-QSA levels. This represents a loss of nearly one-third of the current inflow. Water levels will begin to drop dramatically and salinity levels will rapidly increase at that time. To date, actual changes in both elevation (Figure 1) and salinity (Figure 3) have closely tracked the predicted values (Figure 8). Water levels in the remnant Sea are expected to stabilize at about 255’ below sea level and salinity could increase to 250 g/L or more. At that point, any further evaporation will be limited by the high salt content and viscosity of the brine Figure 6. Salton Sea whole lake chlorophyll-a concentrations, 1999-2013.

18 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE Figure 7. USGS Experimental habitat pond. Photo courtesy of Douglas Barnum, USGS.

of <10 µm that are a major cause of health

problems) in the state of California. PM10 particulates can increase the number and severity of asthma cases and other health problems, particularly among sensitive populations, which include children and the elderly. The future of the Salton Sea is not promising. Falling water levels have already caused most private docks to literally be left in the dust (Figure 9), and local residents have seen their dreams of living at the Sea shore recede along with the water levels. Whatever restoration methods are ultimately used, they promise to be expensive and the environmental impacts of the shrinking Sea will not be fully known for many years.

References Figure 8. Future elevation and salinity trends at the Salton Sea (reprinted from Cohen and Byum 2006, courtesy of Michael Cohen, The Pacific Institute). Barry, B. and M.A. Anderson. 2008. The Salton Sea. LakeLine (4):54-60. California DWR/California DFW. 2013. pool. The only remaining aquatic life is Air quality is already a problem Salton Sea Species Conservation expected to be algae and bacteria. in the area surrounding the Salton Sea, Habitat Project, Final Environmental Table 1 shows the surface area of the with Imperial County having some Impact Statement/Environmental Sea at water levels found in 1999, 2013, of the highest concentrations of PM10 Impact Report, U.S. Army Corps of and levels projected for 2050. If these particulates (dust particles with a diameter Engineers Application No. SPL-2010- projections are correct, over 120 square miles of the Sea floor will become exposed as water levels fall. Mitigation Table 1. Salton Sea Surface Area at Various Elevations. of the expected dust problems will be Elevation, ft (Year) -228 (1999) -232 (2013) -255 (2050) a major expense for future restoration activities. Surface Area, acres (sq. miles) 231,973 (362.5) 223,336 (349.0) 151,497 (236.7)

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 19 Lake and Reservoir Management

A scientific publication of NALMS published up to four times per year solicits articles of a scientific nature, including case studies.

If you have been thinking about publishing the results of a recent study, or you have been hanging on to an old manuscript that just Figure 9. Residential docks in Salton City, California, 2014. Photo courtesy of Norm Niver, Salton needs a little more polishing, now is the time City, CA. to get those articles into your journal. There is room for your article in the next volume. 00142-LLC, State Clearinghoiuse No. gypsum blooms in the Salton Sea as 2010061062. Prepared by the California detected by satellite imagery, 1979- Don’t delay sending your draft article. Let Department of Water Resources and 2006. Lake Reserv Manage, 23:637- the editorial staff work with you to get your California Department of Fish and 652. article ready for publishing. You will have a Wildlife for the California Nations great feeling of achievement, and you will be Resources Agency. Available at: http:// www.water.ca.gov/saltonsea/docs/ G. Chris Holdren, Ph.D., contributing to the science of managing our eir2013/FinalEIS_EIR_complete.pdf, CLM, is the manager precious lakes and reservoirs. accessed 4 August 2014. of the Environmental Cohen, M.J. and K.H. Hyun. 2006. Applications and Research Anyone who has made or plans to make Hazard: The future of the Salton Group at the Bureau of Sea with no restoration project. Reclamation in Denver, presentations at any of the NALMS Pacific Institute. Available at:http:// CO. He has over 40 conferences, consider writing your talk and www.pacinst.org/wp-content/ years of experience submitting it to the journal. It is much easier to uploads/2013/02/report15.pdf, accessed with lake and reservoir do when it is fresh in your mind. 4 August 2014. management. Chris has been an active member of Holdren, G.C. and A. Montaño. 2002. NALMS and its affiliates. He is a past president of Chemical and Physical Characteristics NALMS and the Pennsylvania Lake Management Send those articles or, if you have any of the Salton Sea, California. Society, a former director of the Colorado Lake questions at all, contact: Al Sosiak, Editor, Lake Hydrobiologia, 473:1-21. and Reservoir Management Association, and a and Reservoir Management. Marti-Cardona, B., T.E. Streissberg, former associate director of the Virginia Lakes and S.G. Schladow and S.J. Hook. 2008. Watersheds Association. c Relating fish kills to upwellings If there is anyone who would like to read and wind patterns at the Salton Sea. articles for scientific content, please contact Hydrobiologia, 604:85-95. Al Sosiak. The journal can use your help in Reidel, R., L. Caskey and B.A. Costa- Pierce. 2002. Fish Biology and fisheries helping the editorial staff in editing articles. ecology of the Salton Sea, California. Hydrobiologia, 473:229-244. c Tiffany, M.A., S.L. Ustin and S.H. Hurlbert. 2007. Sulfide irruptions and

20 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE Terminal Lakes

Mono Lake: Streams Taken and Given Back, But Still Waiting David B. Herbst

ono Lake lies at the western edge provided a valuable source of trade with calcium carbonate limestone structures of the Great Basin desert and the coastal Indians (Davis and Logan 1965). that accrete gradually into towers. Pumice Meastern scarp of the Sierra Nevada blocks cast out from volcanic eruptions Mountains, just east of Yosemite National Chemistry and Tufa Towers also serve as nucleation sites for the Park. An isolated remnant of Pleistocene At the current surface elevation of formation of gaylussite crystals that Lake Russell, the lake is set in a volcanic 6,380 feet above mean sea level (MSL), may also eventually turn into limestone basin, with crater islands pushed up the lake has an average depth of 60 (Bischoff et al. 1991). Still more exotic from beneath the lakebed adding to the feet and salinity of about 83 g/L total is the limestone that is added to tufa from scenic surroundings of mountain and dissolved solutes consisting of an alkaline excretions of alkali fly larvae. These desert vistas. Covering an area of about mix of carbonate, bicarbonate, sulfate, insect larvae drink in carbonate-rich lake 70 square miles, the lake is renowned and chloride salts of sodium at a pH near water, then remove these ions from the for limestone tufa towers emerging from 10. It is this high-carbonate alkalinity blood of their open circulatory system by underwater around the shores, and the that promotes the formation of the lakes combining with calcium inside the lime throngs of birds that come to feed on iconic tufa towers (Figure 1). These are glands – modified Malpighian tubules, the abundant brine shrimp (Artemia monica) formed as spring water, rich in dissolved kidneys of insects (Herbst and Bradley and alkali flies Ephydra( hians). This calcium, bubbles up into the lake from 1989). When larvae pupate and attach ancient volcanic-tectonic lake, estimated submerged springs and precipitates as themselves to tufa for protection from at more than 700,000 years old, has passed through long histories of glaciation and expansion, drought and contraction, and in modern times has set historic legal precedence for the protection of ecological values of terminal lakes.

Namesake The name Mono is derived from the Native American Yokut word “fly,” applied to the Monache people living on the eastern slopes of the Sierra at Mono Lake – the Kuzedika Paiutes. These people from the lake of the fly may have been known as such because of the commerce provided by the harvesting of pupae of the alkali fly as food from the lake. Early explorers such as Israel Russell observed the gathering of fly pupae “kutsavi” during which pupae attached to shallow submerged rocks were dislodged by kicking, and the floating pupae gathered from the water surface, dried in the sun, and the puparium case crushed and removed from the fat-rich pupa, about the size of a grain of rice. Flies were so productive that this was a staple food to not only the Kuzedika, but Figure 1. Tufa towers in Mono Lake.

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 21 waves, the contents of the lime glands are ecological values of the lake, minimized Simple Ecosystem and discharged and this cements to the tufa, air pollution from dust, restored stream Severe Chemical Environment adding to the complex reef-like surface of ecosystems, and could still deliver a There are few species capable of these exquisite rock formations. modicum of water and power to the city. tolerating the harsh chemical environment Hydrologic models suggested that this of the lake, but for those adapted, there History of Lake Level and Salinity could be achieved in 20 years but now is little competition for resources and Although there have been natural in 2014, that has yet to be realized. This few predators. The brine shrimp Artemia fluctuations in climate, lake level, and may be due to models based on inaccurate monica, a species endemic to the lake, salinity over the ages of this lake basin, optimistic assumptions for Sierra runoff, thrives in the open water plankton. It is diversion of tributary streams in 1941 for underestimated evaporation rates, and to even harvested for commercial sale (often Los Angeles water supply began a period changing climate. in aquaculture). This primitive crustacean of protracted inflow deficit at Mono Lake. filter feeds on phytoplankton with Without streams to balance evaporative Climate Change Forecasts feathery legs that also serve as gills and is losses, the lake declined rapidly, losing 45 Mountain stream flow has been capable of osmoregulation in high salinity, feet and reaching a low in 1981 (Figure shifting to more coming from rain than but at a price – slower growth and reduced 2). Salinity doubled in that time from snowmelt, earlier melting runoff, and reproduction (Dana and Lenz 1986). The about 50 to 100 g/L, dust flats emerged being more prone to drought and extreme abundance of this species is affected by on the dried margins of the lake, islands variations such as winter flooding. wet-year meromictic conditions whereby with breeding bird colonies were bridged Forecasts for the Mono Basin based the lake fails to mix when inflowing to land where predators could gain access, on climate change models suggest a freshwater layers over more saline, deep and aquatic life was stressed by the significant hydrologic shift by the end nutrients become unavailable, and the concentrated salt load. In 1978 the Mono of the century (Ficklin et al. 2013). phytoplankton food to shrimp is scarce Lake Committee formed to publicize the Modeling predicts 15 percent decrease and limits growth and reproduction plight of the lake, document the problems, in annual streamflow, peak runoff (Melack and Jellison 1998). and seek conservation solutions that earlier by a month, from June to May, Meanwhile, living in the shallows would both protect the lake and save plus the likelihood of wet water year of the littoral region, especially in the water in Los Angeles (www.monolake. types declines and droughts become rocky tufa tidal zone, are the larvae and org). more frequent. The challenge of water pupae of the alkali fly, also capable of In 1994, the State Water Resources management and sustaining the health osmoregulation (Herbst et al. 1988). Control Board ordered that streams be of habitats of all kinds is contingent on Adults of the alkali fly are capable of returned to Mono Lake and determined planning that incorporates this likely crawling underwater, enveloped in a film that a lake level of 6,392 feet MSL could future. of air, where they feed on, and lay eggs in provide a compromise that preserved algae. Although they maintain ionic and osmotic equilibrium over a wide salinity range, as the concentration rises, the growth rates of larvae and size at maturity of pupae decrease, resulting in fewer adults emerging and those that do are smaller, have less fat reserve, and lower reproductive success, and are further limited by less algae food resources (Figure 3). This inhibitory influence of salinity on aquatic life at Mono Lake and other salt lakes is an important factor to consider in setting lake levels for conservation management of productive habitat. Mono Lake is a haven for bird life, especially shorebirds, coming to feed along the shores or in the shallows, on the prolific alkali fly. All life stages of the flies serve as aggregated food – the larvae in shallow areas on algae mats or on tufa, pupae floating on the surface, and adults along the edges of the water (Figure 4). Notable are the tens of thousands of Wilson’s and Red-necked Phalaropes, Figure 2. Mono Lake water level changes since 1850 with the line at 6392’ elevation showing the migratory species that refuel at productive management level ordered by the California State Water Resources Control Board.

22 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE saline lakes, wintering in South America (often the altiplano desert) and breeding in North America (Canada and the Arctic). These birds can be seen spinning on the water surface near shore where they create a vortex of water that brings fly larvae or other invertebrates to the surface where they pick them off. Eared Grebes are also abundant, in excess of a million birds on migrations, stopping to dive and feed on shrimp and flies. Mono Lake is also host to island colonies of the California Gulls. When lake levels drop, these islands become land-bridged, giving access to predators like coyotes that have decimated the colony. Waterfowl were once abundant on the lake and in onshore wetland marshes that were extensive at higher lake levels. Millions of mixed migratory ducks including Northern Shovelers, Ruddy Ducks and others came to feed on mixed insects and vegetation. Water in Figure 3. Results from 500-L mesocosm experiments at Mono Lake showing the production of the streams that had been dried has been emerging flies at different salinities and equivalent lake levels. As salinity increases, fewer flies restored for fishery and riparian values, emerge, the size of flies (the pies) is smaller, they contain less fat (pie slice), and growth of benthic supporting planted trout and many birds algae is reduced (dark area at bottom of tanks). From Herbst and Blinn (1998). in the re-growing streamside forests. Keeping in-stream flows for fish habitat as a requirement of law delivers water to the lake in turn, and so encompasses restoration of the watershed from source to sink.

Conservation Victories Highlight the Integration of Science and Public Trust Water Law The Mono Lake Committee was founded on scientific research showing the impacts of lower levels and rising salinity. Conservation efforts began with scientific documentation of how salinity affected the health of aquatic life, the value of the lake to hundreds of thousands of water birds, and the stream habitat lost on Rush and Lee Vining Creeks. Combined with this evidence, legal arguments to protect the lake as a public trust resource set a precedent for laws that preserve natural values of waters as a common heritage of people and wildlife. The State has a duty to maintain this public trust doctrine. The prescription for Mono Lake was return of stream flow until it reached an elevation where aesthetic, recreation, and ecological values would be balanced with urban water needs. The lake essentially won Figure 4. Adult flies aggregated along the edges of the lakeshore, providing a readily available back rights to half of the water volume it food source to shorebirds. had lost, to be returned to a salinity near

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 23 75 g/L. We don’t yet know how long that will take or if that long-range goal can be SolarBee put the sparkle back achieved. in our raw water reservoir References Bischoff, J.L., D.B. Herbst and R.J. Rosenbauer. 1991. Gaylussite formation at Mono Lake, California. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 55:1743-1747. Dana, G.L. and P.H. Lenz. 1986. Effects of increasing salinity on an Artemia population from Mono Lake, California. Oecologia, 68:428-436. Davis, E.L. and R.F. Logan. 1965. An ethnography of the Kuzedika Paiute of Mono Lake, Mono County, California. Anthropological papers (University of Utah) No. 75. University of Utah Press. Ficklin, D.L., I.T. Stewart and E.P. Maurer. 2013. Effects of projected “Since SolarBee got a hold of the lake, the water quality improved dramatically. Our lakes are climate change on the hydrology of the clear, our tanks are clean, our water is great!” Mono Lake Basin, California. Climate Art Holloman, Water Superintendent Change, 116:111-131. Pagosa Springs (Colorado) sanitation district Herbst, D.B. and D.W. Blinn. 1998. Experimental mesocosm studies Unsightly and unhealthy blue-green algae blooms of salinity effects on the benthic in Hatcher Reservoir were costing Pagosa Springs Sanitation District a fortune in copper sulfate and algal community of a saline lake. J activated carbon filters. The District installed Phycology, 34:772-778. SolarBee® SB10000 mixers and saw immediate Herbst, D.B, F.P. Conte and V.J. Brookes. improvement. The blooms disappeared, as did 1988. Osmoregulation in an alkaline levels of source water TOCs. The District installed SolarBee mixers in the water tanks, too — where salt lake insect Ephydra (Hydropyrus) thorough mixing virtually eliminates temperature hians Say (Diptera: Ephydridae), in stratification and water stagnation. SolarBee mixers relation to water chemistry. J Insect eliminate something else, too: Customer complaints about water taste and odor. Physiol, 34:903-909. Medora Corp.’s proven mixing technology for lakes Herbst, D.B. and T.J. Bradley. 1989. A Put the sparkle back in your raw water reservoir. and ponds is now offered in Malpighian tubule lime gland in an GridBee® electric mixers. Read our case studies: http://lakes.medoraco.com insect inhabiting alkaline salt lake. J www.medoraco.com/rawwater Experimental Biol, 145:63-78. Melack, J.M. and R. Jellison. 1998. Limnological conditions in Mono Lake: contrasting monomixis and meromixis Brands of Medora Corporation in the 1990s. Hydrobiologia, 384:21-39. Medora Corporation • Dickinson, ND • 866-437-8076 • www.medoraco.com

David Herbst is a research scientist with the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory of the University of California. He has Zebra / Quagga Mussel Veliger Identification studied the physiology and World Expert on Mussels Since 1975 ecology of saline lake algae Fast Response - Reasonable Rates and invertebrates of the Contact Dr. Dan Marelli: Great Basin since 1976. His interests extend into the headwater streams of the 850-443-2177 or Sierra Nevada Mountains where he investigates the [email protected] effects of drought and climate change on watershed ecology. c SCIDI Scientific Diving International®

24 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE Terminal Lakes

More than Meets the Eye: Managing Salinity in Great Salt Lake, Utah

James S. White, Sarah E. Null, and David Tarboton

reat Salt Lake (GSL) is a pluvial lake and a remnant of historic GLake Bonneville. It is the largest saline lake in the Western Hemisphere, and fourth-largest in the world. The only outflow of water is via evaporation, causing a very gradual accumulation of minerals. Over time, this has led to high salinity in GSL, and is responsible for the relatively simple but highly productive saline ecosystem. The lake is a critical link in the Pacific flyway, supporting millions of migratory and resident birds, which feed on invertebrates inhabiting the lake. The lake is also used commercially for mineral extraction and brine shrimp harvest. GSL is vital to the local and regional economy, contributing an estimated $1.3 billion, and supporting nearly 8,000 jobs. In 1959, Union Pacific Railroad (UPR) constructed a rock-filled causeway across GSL, bisecting the lake from Promontory Point on the east bank, to the West Desert on the west bank (Figure 1). This caused the lake to be separated into north and south bays, Gunnison and Gilbert Bay, respectively. Upon completion, flow between the bays was restricted to the semi-porous fill material and two 4.5 m wide culverts installed during causeway construction. In 1984, an 88 m wide and 4 m deep breach was added to the causeway to increase inter- bay flow and alleviate flooding (it was later deepened to 6.4 m). Ninety-five percent of streamflow enters the south bay, causing an elevation gradient to form Figure 1. Major watersheds of Great Salt Lake. The West Desert contributes a very small amount between the two bays (the south bay is of water to the lake. roughly 0.3 meters higher than the north bay). Because of the hydrologic isolation averaging 317 g/L since 1966, while through time. The two 4.5 m wide and discrepancy of inflows between the the south is considerably less saline, culverts became unstable and in 2012 bays, the causeway has become a key averaging 142 g/L since 1966. through 2013 they were closed. To driver of salinity in GSL. The north The causeway was built on soft replace the flow provided by the culverts, bay is often at or near saturation levels, lake sediments and has slowly subsided UPR has proposed to build a 55 m

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 25 trapezoidal bridge. However, changes to to the naked eye and even satellite images total volume and mineral load for both lake level and salinity from the bridge (Figure 2). In contrast, the relatively bays at each timestep (every two days). had previously not been quantified. To moderate salinities of the south bay The model was originally developed in evaluate how the proposed bridge opening provide habitat for large populations of 1973, and was updated in 1997 and 2000. will affect the salinity of both bays of the Artemia and Ephydra, which are vital A schematic of major model inputs and lake, we simulated historical and proposed food sources for birds. However, during outputs are illustrated in Figure 3. causeway changes with a modified periods of high precipitation, salinity Three different alternatives were version of the USGS Great Salt Lake drops, allowing freshwater predators modeled. Fortran Model (Waddel and Bolke 1973; such as corixids (water boatmen), usually 1. Historical – causeway with two Wold et al. 1997; Loving et al 2000). intolerant to GSL conditions, to prey open culverts and breach. Results Salinity and lake level have an on Artemia and decimate populations from this run were compared inverse relationship, whereby salinity (Wurtsbaugh and Berry 1998). Lake to measured data to test model increases as lake level drops, and managers are concerned that if culverts performance. decreases as lake level rises. Lake level remain closed and new openings are not changes primarily from precipitation and installed, the causeway will result in water 2. Proposed bridge – Causeway with surface runoff. Thus, salinity is highly that is too salty in the north bay and too the proposed bridge and breach. variable over time, and dependent on fresh in the south bay to maintain Artemia This estimates lake level and climatic conditions. Periods of drought populations. Our research provides salinity with proposed railroad give rise to high salinity, whereas high estimates for salinity, salt load, and lake causeway changes (but historical precipitation periods result in dilution. level to evaluate Artemia habitat with climate data) and allows a direct While salinity varies significantly over current and proposed modifications to the comparison to the historical model time, total mineral (salt) load in GSL is causeway. run. much more consistent. Total mineral load 3. Whole lake – A whole lake is the mass of salts in the lake that does Model Methods and Validation condition without a causeway. not change with precipitation and surface The USGS GSL Fortran Model uses The lake exhibits a single salinity runoff. Prior to human development, salt a mass balance approach to calculate behavior. Human-induced load changed over geologic timescales, with miniscule but accumulating contributions from tributaries. In human timescales, the salt load of GSL can be thought of as constant, except for human activities like mineral extraction. Two factors have reduced GSL mineral load over the past 50 years. The first is extracting minerals such as sodium chloride, magnesium, and potassium for commercial uses. The second is pumping Great Salt Lake water into the West Desert to protect Salt Lake City from lake flooding during consecutive wet years. Pumps were built in 1987 and mineral load was reduced by approximately 0.5 billion tons during wet years of the late 1980’s. Mineral load loss from GSL over the past 50 years due to mineral extraction and pumping is approximately 1 billion tons. Salinity differences between the bays have significant impacts on ecology, mineralogy, and commercial and recreational uses The hypersaline north bay is largely inhospitable for macroinvertebrates such as brine shrimp (Artemia franciscana) and brine fly (Ephydra cinera). Instead, it is characterized by large populations of archaea (microbes) and red-algae. This causes a discoloration that is easily visible Figure 2. Aerial image of Great Sale Lake. Photo from NASA Earth Observatory.

26 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE Results from the historical proposed Monthly imputs bridge model show that the proposed Streamflow bridge would ameliorate salinity USGS streamflow data for: differences between the north and south • Bear River bays, returning lake level and salinity to • Jordan River • Weber River more natural conditions (Figure 7). On Monthly aggregated average, north arm salinity is reduced 41 outputs (each arm): Evaporation g/l, and south arm salinity is increased Calculated via mass balance • Lake elevation/volume (more accurate than Updated USGS 34 g/l (Table 1). While the north bay meteorological equations) Great Salt Lake • Mineral load still reaches saturation approximately 10 Model • Mineral concentration percent of time period, it is closer to the (salinity) Direct Precipitation whole lake model simulation, where the Obtained from Oregon State • Flow through openings average salinity is 222 g/l. University PRISM program Implications for Ecology and Initial conditions Management Each arm: We focus attention on Artemia, • Mineral loads as they are a primary food source for • Lake elevation migratory birds and a reasonable proxy for other salt-tolerant organisms such as Ephydra. Although Artemia growth Figure 3. Schematic of major model inputs and outputs and fitness are dependent on more than just salinity, such as temperature, food modifications are identical to salinity and load in the mid through abundance, and predation, salinity levels the two previous runs so that late 1990s, when salinity concentration are a key driver for growth and survival. lost mineral load to pumping and load is under-predicted compared Ongoing research into salinity tolerances and extraction are included, and to measurements. We attribute these for Artemia suggests an upper salinity streamflows have been reduced discrepancies to a limitation of the threshold of 225 g/l. While specimens can from withdrawals for consumptive, model that assumes no flow through the be observed in higher salinities, fitness agricultural and industrial use. culverts if they are submerged, conditions is greatly reduced and populations are that occurred throughout much of the likely small and isolated. Establishing Results 1990s. In reality, a density gradient from a low salinity threshold for Artemia is We compared 1966 – 2012 modeled different salinity concentrations between more difficult because predation, not and measured data to evaluate model the two bays would have caused some physiology, likely controls survival. fit for lake level (Figure 4), salinity flow through the culverts. Despite this While lab experiments show Artemia concentration (Figure 5) and salt load limitation, we are confident in the model’s survive to 10 g/l, we used 60 g/l as a low (Figure 6). The model represents past ability to replicate GSL dynamics. threshold, as this was the salinity in the conditions well, with an exception for 1980’s, where Artemia populations began to collapse. Below 60 g/l, predators such as corixids begin to populate the lake and prey on Artemia in significant numbers. Overlaying these thresholds on our results (Figure 7), results show that in both the historical and proposed bridge models the south arm nearly always provides habitat with suitable salinities, while the north is almost always too saline. As shown in Figure 7, conditions in the late 1980s and late 1990s were inhospitable to Artemia. This is validated by several studies showing significant loss of Artemia populations during these periods (Wurtsbaugh 1998). Our proposed bridge results suggest that had the bridge been in place instead of culverts, salinity in the south bay would have been Figure 4. Measured (black and blue) and modeled (red and green) lake level since 1966. South saline enough so that Artemia were not bay (black and red) averages roughly 0.3 m higher than north bay. threatened. Furthermore, the north arm

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 27 would have provided habitat from 1984- 1992, whereas with culverts, the north bay supported Artemia from 1986-1989 (Figure 8). Our research shows that causeway opening design (e.g., culverts, bridge, breach) affects salinities in GSL’s north and south bays. Results indicate that of the alternatives we evaluated, the proposed bridge will best ameliorate salinity differences between the north and south bays and benefit lake ecology, although additional research is needed to evaluate hydrodynamic changes from modified causeway openings. We anticipate that the proposed bridge would support brine shrimp in 95 percent of the Figure 5. Measured (points) and modeled (lines) salinity over time. Different colored points years of the 1966-2012 model runs we represent different locations where salinity was measured. completed; whereas, current conditions with the breach and closed culverts would support brine shrimp for only 85 percent of the 46-year model period (Figure 9). We recommend the proposed bridge design for the GSL railroad causeway instead of maintaining the causeway with closed culverts for sustainable management of GSL salinity and ecology (Figure 10).

References Loving, B.L., K.M. Waddell and C.W. Miller. 2000. Water and salt balance of Great Salt Lake, Utah, and simulation of water and salt movement through the causeway, 1987-98, U.S. Geol. Surv. Water Resour. Invest. Rep., 2000-4221. Waddell, K.M. and E.L. Bolke. 1973. The Figure 6. Measured (points) and modeled (lines) total salt load over time. Different colored points effects of restricted circulation on the represent different locations of measurements. Blue line represents modeled precipitated salt load. salt balance of Great Salt Lake, Utah. Water Resour. Bull. Rep. 18, Utah Geol. and Mineral Survey, Salt Lake City. Wold, S.R., B.E. Thomas and K.M. Waddell. 1997. Water and salt balance of Great Salt Lake, Utah, and simulation of water and salt movement through the causeway. U.S. Geol. Survey Water Supply Pap., 2450. Wurtsbaugh, W.A. and T. Smith Berry. 1998. Cascading effects of decreased salinity on the plankton, chemistry, and physics of the Great Salt Lake (Utah). Can J Fish Aquatic Sci, 47:100-109.

Figure 7. Historical, proposed, and undivided lake model run. Proposed bridge is consistently closer to undivided lake condition than historical.

28 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE Table 1. Mean, Minimum, and Maximum Salinity by Model Run. James S. White is a graduate student in the Watershed Science Department at Utah State University. His research includes modeling changes to Great Salt Lake and reconstructing historical lake conditions.

Sarah E. Null is an assistant professor in the Watershed Science Department Utah State University. Her research includes modeling changes to ecosystems and water supply from climate change and Great Salt Lake hydrology.

David Tarboton is a professor in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Utah State University. His research includes hydrologic predictions using geographic information systems and digital elevation models and has done extensive research on the hydrology of Great Salt Lake. c Figure 8. View from Union Pacific Railroad Causeway looking east. Note red color of north bay on left. Photo courtesy of Wayne Wurtsbaugh.

Figure 9. Commercial brine shrimp harvesting. Brine shrimp cysts Figure 10. Tundra Swans on Great Salt Lake. Photo courtesy of Chris Luecke. (eggs) visible in foreground appear similar to an oil slick. Photo courtesy of Wayne Wurtsbaugh.

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 29 Terminal Lakes

Lake Abert, OR: A Terminal Lake Under Extreme Water Stress

Ron Larson and Joe Eilers

Western Intermountain Lakes (Figure 1). In their winter 2011 LakeLine Denburgh (1971), it takes only a few are Dying article, Larson and Larson described how years of low inflows to shrink the lake. ater is life! Searching that Lake Abert, a salty and highly alkaline phrase with Google brought 1.9 terminal (or endorheic) lake, is one of History of Lake Abert Water Levels Wbillion results, so there must be two lakes that are remnants of Lake Within recorded history, Lake something to it. In fact that statement Chewaucan, which existed during the Abert reached a maximum elevation of could not be truer than in the arid Pleistocene epoch. Today, 10,000 years approximately 4,260.5 feet above mean West. Take for example, Lake Abert in later, the future of Lake Abert is in doubt. sea level (msl) in 1958, following an south-central Oregon. In most years the Lake Abert has a watershed of over unusually wet period (Phillips and Van lake has attracted waterbirds in almost 850 square miles. Because the watershed Denburgh (1971). At that elevation, the countless numbers. In fact, Lake Abert is in the rain shadow of the Cascade lake covered 64 square miles, contained surpassed the Great Salt Lake as having Mountain Range, the watershed produces an estimated volume of 500,000 acre-feet, the highest densities of shorebirds on a little runoff in relationship to its size, and and had a maximum depth of about 15 per area basis. Now, waterbirds and other consequently annual water yield averages feet. Decades earlier during the extended species dependent on Lake Abert and less than 150 acre-feet per square mile. drought of the Dust Bowl era of the 1920s other terminal lakes throughout much of Its main tributary, the Chewaucan River, and 1930s, the lake was dry or nearly the intermountain West are at risk from drains about 650 square miles. so for 6 years, and reached its lowest a drying climate and unsustainable water Lake Abert’s hydrology is now documented elevation of approximately diversions, as is described in this edition dominated by brief periods of rising 4,245 feet (msl). At that elevation, Lake of LakeLine. water levels during infrequent wet years, Abert covered approximately 12 square followed by longer periods of declining miles, had an estimated volume of 3,000 Lake Abert Introduction water levels due to dry conditions where acre-feet, and the maximum water depth Lake Abert is located in the far evaporation exceeds inflows. Because was only about 2 feet. northwest corner of the hydrographic annual evaporation rates from the lake Based on the dramatic changes in Great Basin, in Lake County Oregon average 40 inches (Phillips and Van size, volume, and depth experienced by

Figure 1. Lake Abert looking north from near the south end of the lake (June 16, 2014). Salt deposits are visible along the shore due to the low lake levels and high salinity. The cause of the brown water is unknown but may be precipitated iron.

30 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE Lake Abert in the 20th century, it is clear that the lake is a sensitive indicator of hydrologic conditions. This sensitivity is based partially on the balance between precipitation rates in the watershed and evaporation from the lake. However, inflows to the lake are further reduced by upstream agricultural diversions, as well as a storage and evaporation from a private reservoir. Exactly what the impact of these hydrologic alterations is on the lake is unclear because the State of Oregon does not monitor agricultural diversions, nor does it currently measure water levels in the lake. Fortunately, concerned volunteers have monitored water levels, but this has become Figure 2. Lake Abert, March15, 2014. The lowest staff gage is on the boulder directly behind increasingly difficult because water the person and water levels were below the gage. By mid-June 2014, the water level was several levels are well below the lowest staff hundred feet beyond the gage. gage (Figure 2). One indication of the possible effect water diversions have on 1985; Keister 1992; Herbst 1994; Herbst along the shore where freshwater seeps the lake is the fact that water rights from and Bradley 2004). reduced the salinity. The numbers of the Chewaucan River upstream from the migrating waterbirds (e.g., avocets, stilts, lake equal a rate sum of over 350 cubic Recent Impacts from Drying Climate and phalaropes, sandpipers, gulls, and ducks) feet per second (cfs), according to data Unsustained Water Diversions was also much reduced from previous provided on the Oregon Department of In the past decade, Lake Abert has years, so it was evident that there was a Water Resources website. That diversion experienced only two years of high cascading effect of high salinities that rate, if fully used, would exceed total flow inflows – 2006 and 2011. Since 2000, propagated through the food web. in the river in most months during most water levels, water volume, and depth in In 2011, conditions improved due to years. the lake have declined. This has resulted higher inflows that reduced salinities to in higher salinities, which has had dire below 100 g/L, but in 2012, low inflows Lake Abert Varying consequences on its ecosystem. Most allowed salinities to increase and in Water Chemistry plants and animals that live in salt lakes October 2012 they reached 160 g/L. Of Not only does Lake Abert experience have an optimum salinity that is similar more concern were conditions in 2013 considerable hydrologic variability, its to that of the ocean. If the salinity is when the lake once again experienced a water chemistry is also changing. In 1963, less, freshwater-adapted species can high-salinity-driven ecosystem collapse. the lake contained an estimated 13 million invade and alter saline ecosystems. Somehow brine shrimp hatched that tons of dissolved solids and was described And, if the salinity gets too high, it spring, even though most of the lake was as the largest inland saline water body in causes osmotic stress, increased energy considered too salty to support these the Pacific Northwest by Phillips and Van demands, and consequently productivity invertebrates. Apparently, inflows entering Denburgh (1971). Sodium, chloride, and and biodiversity are reduced. Additional at the south end of the lake reduced carbonate are the major ions present in the stress from high salinities can come from salinities sufficiently for brine shrimp to lake (Van Denburgh 1975). The salinity, reduced concentrations of dissolved hatch and they apparently survived the which is a measure of total dissolved oxygen. higher salinities that they experienced solids, is inversely related to lake volume, That problem was evident in Lake later as the lake mixed. Nevertheless, the with salinity increasing as lake volume Abert in 2010 when salinities reached shrimp remained small throughout the decreases. For example, in 1958, when the about 170 g/L. That summer, brine shrimp season, likely a result of osmotic stress lake was at its largest recorded volume, (Artemia franciscana) turned bright red and low primary productivity caused the salinity was 18 g/L (Phillips and Van from high levels of hemoglobin that by the high salinity. By late July 2013, Denburgh 1971), which is about half that they produced in response to reduced evaporation caused the salinity to reach of seawater, which averages about 35 g/L. concentrations of dissolved oxygen. In 200 g/L, and finally in early August, This is in contrast to the dissolved solid August of that year the water turned the brine shrimp died and flies were concentration we recently measured in red because dying brine shrimp were scarce. Loss of the invertebrate food base June 2014, when it reached 280 g/L. Once concentrated near shore in windrows. evidently caused waterbirds to leave the the lake reaches a salinity of between 50 That year alkali or shore flies Ephydra( lake prematurely, because in late July and 100 g/L, it has serious adverse effects hians), which normally are present in vast 2013 approximately 350,000 waterbirds, to algae, brine shrimp, and brine flies, the numbers along the Lake Abert shoreline, mostly Wilson’s phalaropes, were present primary prey of the waterbirds (Boula were mostly confined to a few areas at the lake, but a month later numbers

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 31 were less than 3,000 according to data collected by volunteers from the East Cascades Audubon Society and posted on their website (www.eBird.org). Keith Kreuz, who with his wife Lynn, have harvested brine shrimp from the lake for 30 years, managed to capture a small amount of brine shrimp for his Oregon Desert Brine Shrimp Company, but by August, low harvests forced Keith to halt operations. By September of 2013, the salinity in the lake was nearly 250 g/L, and something happened that hadn’t occurred in the lake in over 80 years, salt began precipitating from the saturated brine. Most of this was calcium carbonate (CaCO3), which formed crusts of triangular white or translucent crystals up to half-inch in length over areas of the Figure 3. Calcite crystals up to 0.5 inches long appeared along the shore of Lake Abert in shoreline (Figure 3), and salt was present September 2013. on the lake bottom and brine in the sediment.

2014 Observations So far in 2014, the situation for the ecosystem at Lake Abert is even worse than it has been previously except for the extended Dust Bowl era drought. Inflows to the lake over the 2013-2014 winter and spring were minimal with lake elevations only increasing a few inches from the previous fall, and a wide band of alkali-encrusted shoreline was present at both ends of the lake (Figure 4). In the spring of 2014 there was no hatch of brine shrimp and adult alkali flies were confined to freshwater seeps. As a result, Keith and Lynn Kreuz were unable to harvest shrimp, which is the first time this has happened in three decades. The most recent lake level measurement made in mid-June 2014 indicated that the lake was at 4246.2 feet Figure 4. South end of Lake Abert June 16, 2014, looking west and showing an extensive alkali- encrusted playa forming due to low water levels. The Chewaucan River enters the lake from the (msl). The lake has not been that low left. Flow into the lake was estimated to be less than 1 cubic foot per second. since 1937. At the end of July 2014, the lake had receded so far that we were reported from the Great Salt Lake, Owens such events and will return once inflows unable to measure the elevation. What Lake, and the Dead Sea. Halobacterium resume and salinities decline. However, remained of the lake had tuned a vivid has a red photosynthetic pigment past events occurred before the hydrology red color (Figure 5). We believe the called bacteriorhodopsin. If hydrologic was impacted by surface and groundwater red coloration is from salt-loving or conditions continue, Lake Abert will depletions, and climate change may create “halophytic” bacteria that are also known remain in an ecological state where it a drier climate than has been seen in the as extremophiles, because they can can only support halophytic bacteria like recent past. survive under very harsh environmental Halobacterium. The current situation at Lake Abert conditions such as the high osmotic Some aspects of the current state is partially the result of a lack of concern stress resulting from extreme salinities. of Lake Abert are not new, since it has by policy makes and managers charged Halobacterium is the likely species likely undergone similar events multiple with protection of natural resources. present in the lake. It has also been times in the past. Its biota is adapted to Lake Abert is a public trust resource that

32 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE the State of Oregon has responsibility to protect. Finally, Oregon has adopted an “Integrated Water Resources Strategy” that requires the Oregon Department of Water Resources to create an integrated state water resource policy [ORS 536.220(2) (a)]. Lake Abert and adjacent terminal lakes, including Goose Lake and the Warner Lakes, may well be the litmus test of this strategy. We are hopeful, but not optimistic, that implementation of this plan will result in future water-use decisions that consider how Lake Abert and the species that depend on it will be affected. Lake Abert is a watery jewel in a parched landscape that has been a key feeding stopover site for migrating waterbirds. Its future is in our hands.

References Figure 5. South end of Lake Abert July 30, 2014, looking southwest. The lake has receded further Boula, K.M. 1986. Foraging ecology from conditions in June 2014 and has taken on a red color believed to be from the halophytic of migrant water birds, Lake Abert, bacterium Halobacterium. Oregon. M.S. thesis, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. 99 pp. Herbst, D.B. 1994. Aquatic ecology of the littoral zone of Lake Abert: Defining Next Issue – critical lakes levels and optimum Winter 2014 salinity for biological health. Report LakeLine prepared for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Bureau In our next issue, we look at “Lakes in Winter.” of Land Management, August 1994. 33 When cold weather arrives, pp. Herbst, D.B. and T.J. Bradley. 2004. how do fish, plants, and algae cope? Salinity and nutrient limitations on growth of benthic algae from two Does water chemistry change? alkaline salt lakes of the western Great Find out next in the winter LakeLine. Basin (USA). J. Phycol. 25(4):673-678 (published online: October 29, 2004). Keister, G.P., Jr. 1992. The ecology c of Lake Abert: Analysis of further development. Special Report, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Salem, OR, April 1992. 34 pp. Phillips, K.N. and A.S. Van Denburgh. 1971. Hydrology and geochemistry of Abert, Summer, and Goose lakes, and other closed-basin lakes in south-central Oregon. Closed-Basin Investigations, U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 502-B, RestoreRestore LakesLakes NaturallyNaturally 86 pp. Vertex aeration helps: Van Denburgh, A.S. 1975. Solute balance Lower nutrients that feed algae at Abert and Summer lakes, south- Grow bigger, healthier fish central Oregon. Closed-Basin Investigations, Reduce bottom muck U.S. Geol. Survey Prof. Paper 502-C, 29 pp. 800-432-4302 • www.vertexwaterfeatures.com

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 33 Terminal Lakes

Owens Lake – From Dustbowl to Mosaic of Salt Water Habitats

David B. Herbst and Michael Prather

t’s hard to call this a lake. The body of 100 years ago, in 1913, and captured in a basin of about 4,000 feet above water that once covered this basin from all streams flowing east from the Sierra sea-level, its shores are bounded on Ishore to shore is gone, having dwindled as far north as Bishop. It also cut off 62 the west side by the majestic Sierra to a hypersaline pool in the area where miles of the Owens River channel above Nevada, rising abruptly to towering it was once deepest after the city of Los Owens Lake. Over the next decade or peaks of 14,000 to 15,000 feet; and Angeles famously diverted the Owens so Owens Lake dried down to a chain on the east side by the precipitous River to support booming growth some of small wetlands and mudflats along its Inyo range, with the famous mines 100 years ago. Along with the brine pool shoreline. In 1969, a second aqueduct of Cerro Gordo and an altitude of though, there is now a mosaic of about 40 was completed and began pumping 10,000 feet. Standing on the summit square miles of ponded waters of varied groundwater as well as diverting streams. of this range, the panorama spread extent, scattered across much of the Massive pumping began in 1970 causing out in all directions is one of the ancient lakebed, maintained not by natural the extinction of the largest natural grandest, most overwhelming views to inflow but by a system of irrigation pipes springs in the Owens Valley as well as the behold, although there is no verdure and sprinklers. destruction of many acres of wetlands. to delight the eye and to support the The Owens Lake basin is located at ornamentation of the scenery. How the southern end of the Owens Valley, Before Diversions far beneath us lies the Salinas Valley at about 1,080 m elevation, surrounded Early records of visits to pre- on one side, the Owens Valley on by the southern Sierra Nevada on the aqueduct Owens Lake indicate this was the other! How perpendicular the west and the Inyo Mountains to the east. an expansive body of water and habitat mountains, how diminutive the lake! Although located in an arid desert climate, to an abundance of aquatic life that How are we deluded by the optic the Sierra snowpack delivers many supported large numbers of waterfowl and refraction of the superposed strata streams down its eastern slopes into the shorebirds. Reference was often made to of air of different temperature! Truly, Owens River. During the late Pleistocene the similarities of this body of water to to observe the setting sun on these and Holocene, lake levels varied with Mono Lake to the north. heights, the changing tints of the sky, climatic wet and dry periods, and were After the Civil War there were the spreading of darkness over peaks interconnected during high stands with several major expeditions of geographic and valley, is a spectacle never to be rivers flowing from Mono Lake, through exploration and documentation forgotten. Owens into a chain of lakes in Searles, undertaken in the western United States. The Owens Lake has no outlet and Panamint, and Death Valley (Bacon et At the same time Major John Wesley is fed by the Owens River. . . . as the al. 2006). Under drier climate regimes, Powell was engaged in his famous level of the lake remains constant, a saline lake and sometimes desiccated ventures into the lower Colorado River there must be a perfect equilibrium playa existed during episodes of the past and Grand Canyon, Lieutenant George between the amount of evaporation 20,000 years. M. Wheeler was conducting topographic and the incoming water. The lake Streams of the eastern Sierra and geologic surveys of the far west having 110 square miles surface, attracted the interest of the Los Angeles including eastern California. In 1876, an evaporation of 4.6 feet per year Department of Water and Power Wheeler visited the region of Owens Lake would suffice to swallow up the (LADWP) in the early 20th century. and gave this superlative description, annual volume of Owens River. Those Employing sometimes deceitful land excerpted here in part because it is the who cannot appreciate the amount purchase practices to acquire 240,000 earliest most complete account of the lake of evaporation have invented the acres of Owens Valley and associated environs: hypothesis of a subterranean outlet, water rights, streams that would have as in the case of Great Salt Lake in flowed to Owens Lake eventually This lake is, next to Mono Lake in Utah. The water has a strong saline provided most of the water supply to the Mono County, California, certainly and alkaline taste, and is far-famed city (Reisner 1993). The first aqueduct the most interesting lake on the in Mono and Inyo Counties for its to Los Angles was completed just over North American Continent. Situated cleansing properties, surpassing those

34 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE of soap. Neither fish nor mollusks sample taken in 1886 showed a salinity years of inflow, the only remnant of the can exist, but some forms of lower of 72.7 during a time of little change in lake had been a pool of saturated brine in animal life are plentiful, as infusoriae, lake volume. Agricultural development the western portion of the lakebed (Figure copepoda, and larvae of insects. in the Owens Valley during the late part 1). Scarce aquatic habitat also remained While around the lake the of the 19th century was enabled through as marginal seeps, springs, wild wells, and Owens Lake – From Dustbowl to vegetation consists of two salt plants, irrigation withdrawals from the Owens their outflows onto salt flats and shallow Bryzopyrum and Halostrachys, the River and severely limited inflows to ponds. Mosaic of Salt uWater Habitats vegetation in the lake is confined to Owens Lake. During the 1890s the lake The great naturalist Joseph Grinnell an algous or fundgoid plant, floating elevation declined and salinities rose to visited Owens Lake in 1917 and his field in small globular masses, of whitish around 200 g/L. Wet climatic conditions notes provide a picture of Owens Lake David B. Herbst and Michael Prather or yellowish-green color in the reversed this trend for a time but by prior to the impacts of the Los Angeles water. These accumulate on certain 1913 the Owens Valley aqueduct was aqueduct: localities of the lake-bottom and near completed and farming water rights had the shore and undergo decay, emitting been bought out, diverting the flow of the Great numbers of water birds are a feces-like odor, as observed also in Owens River and resulting in drying of in sight along the shore – Avocets, the treatment of albuminous matters the main body of the lake by about 1926. Phalaropes and Ducks. Large flocks with caustic alkalies. Since then, except for a few isolated wet of shorebirds in flight over the water One of the most striking phenomena is the occurrence of a singular fly, that covers the shore of the lake in a stratum 2 feet in width and 2 inches in thickness, and occurs nowhere else in the county; only at Mono Lake, another alkaline lake, is it seen again. The insect is inseparable from the alkaline water, and feeds upon the organic matter of the above-named alga that is washed in masses upon the shore. In the larva state it inhabits the alkaline lake, in especially great numbers in August and September, and the squaws congregate here to fish with baskets for them. Dried in the sun and mixed with flour, they serve as a sort of bread of great delicacy for the Indians (Annual Report 1876).

The reference to floating algae in the lake no doubt indicates the presence of the salt-tolerant filamentous green alga Ctenocladus circinnatus (Herbst and Castenholz 1994), often found as floating balls washed on beaches or settled in shallow waters near shores. The fly is Ephydra hians, also known from Mono Lake, and the copepoda may refer to the brine shrimp Artemia (copepods are not found in hypersaline conditions). The abundance of ducks and other water birds is evidence of the productivity and importance of Owens Lake as a wildlife habitat during this era. Chemical analysis of a water sample taken during the Wheeler visit yielded a total salt content of 63.6 g/L, dominated by sodium carbonate salts, and having a Figure 1. Red-colored water of heavy salt-saturated brine support halobacteria in a remnant pool specific gravity of 1.051. Another water in the western portion of the lakebed.

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 35 in the distance, wheeling about show en masse, now silvery now dark, against the gray-blue of the water. There must literally be thousands of birds within sight of this spot. En route around the south end of Owens Lake to Olancha saw water birds almost continuously. . . . The shore shallows are thronged with water birds. Avocets predominate; I estimated one bird every four feet of shoreline, which would make 1300 per mile!

By some accounts Owens Lake has been a dead habitat since it became dry. Known now primarily for the plumes of alkali dust that periodically blow off the playa surface during windstorms, the ecological values of the saline lake Figure 2. Ponds at moderate salinity levels (25 to 75 g/L) are ideal for the growth of mats of ecosystem had been ignored or forgotten benthic algae (mostly diatoms) that provide food for different species of brine fly larvae. Adults but are now being considered. While there emerge and congregate along the pond margins, seen as the dark bands in this photo. is considerable public attention to the human health concern related to fine dust particles that, when breathed, may cause In addition to the devastating effects back to Owens Lake for dust control. respiratory ailments, the health of the lake diversions of the river had on the aquatic Water for dust control began flowing in as a habitat had been widely regarded ecosystem, bird and wildlife habitat, November 2001. Migrating waterfowl as a lost cause. Contrary to this view, the dry playa created a tremendous air and shorebirds began using all watered the existence of fringing habitats in the pollution hazard, as dust blown from the areas immediately. Through the efforts of form of spring and seep outflows around exposed lakebed into the atmosphere far the local Eastern Sierra Audubon Society the edges of the playa represent habitat exceeded national air quality standards. In chapter and Audubon-California the refuges and potential colonization sources 1998, after years of conflict, under order project has added habitat goals for various for the renewal of an interconnected from the U.S. Environmental Protection guilds of birds and for alkali meadows/ aquatic ecosystem in the Owens Lake Agency to address this air pollution, Los seeps/springs. A lake-wide survey of birds basin. Owens Lake is not a dead habitat, Angeles and the Great Basin Unified in April of 2013 found 115,000 birds. This only dormant. Growing again these days Air Pollution Control District signed included 20 species of shorebirds totaling like you might water a lawn. a Memorandum of Understanding 63,000 birds. Each year Owens Lake is whereby the City of Los Angeles averaging 600-700 adult snowy plovers, Rehydration accepted responsibility for the creation a California Species of Special Concern. As the early accounts of the lake of the largest single-source PM10 dust It is the largest nesting location for the and its life attest, Owens had been a hazard in the country. They committed species in California. Wildlife at Owens productive body of water. The sprinklers to remediating the dust emissions as Lake is considered part of California’s and flood irrigation ponds and channels per the California Clean Air Act. The Public Trust law as a result of the 1983 now provide a revival of lost ecological environmental document for the dust Mono Lake California Supreme Court values in a mosaic of saline water habitats control project allowed three approved Decision. This decision ruled that wildlife that sustain a great variety of microbial, methods – water (sheet flooding and is a public trust and must be balanced algae, and invertebrate life that attract ponding), gravel, and native vegetation. with the need for water of the City of hundreds of thousands of birds of many To date LADWP has covered the lake Los Angeles. The primary goals of the species. Some areas are fresh enough bed with about 40 square miles of sheet Owens Lake Dust Control Project are to to support sheltering aquatic vegetation flooded and ponded “cells” (Figures 3 and conserve water and to protect and enhance to waterfowl and diverse invertebrate 4). Approximately 4 square miles have existing habitat values for waterfowl and inhabitants, others are hypersaline pools managed vegetation and 3 square miles shorebirds as well as alkali meadows, suitable only red-tinged halobacteria, but are covered in gravel. Currently there is seeps and springs. shallow pools at moderate salinity levels 90 percent attainment of the dust control Responses of aquatic life to provide conditions that grow dense mats compliance. The cost so far for the Los salinity vary from requiring near salt- of algae that are consumed by prolific Angeles Owens Lake Dust Control Project saturated conditions for growth in the populations of salt flies and in turn by is over $1.2 billion. Nearly half of the Los red halobacteria of the old lake brine shorebirds in the thousands (Figure 2). Angeles Aqueduct flow is now diverted pool, through moderate-salinity tolerant

36 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE a gradient of outflow evaporating onto the playa. Diversity of invertebrate food items is high at lower salinity but abundance is greatest at moderate salinity. Different bird species take advantage of what amounts to a mosaic of habitat values suited to varied feeding types and habitat preferences (Figure 5). This has been the basis of management planning that is supposed to maintain suitable habitat conditions for breeding and migratory guilds of birds from diving ducks to shorebirds (LADWP 2013). Dust-control irrigation has provided the opportunity for rejuvenated aquatic environments of varied biological make-up and an area of productive shallow water habitat that meets or even exceeds that of the pre-diversion lake littoral region. LADWP now has plans Figure 3. Bubbler on the lake produces outflow into saline pond habitats. to decrease water application under future management scenarios by over 50 percent and this leaves uncertain how the area and quality of aquatic habitat that has been created can be sustained while saving water. With less water, the cover of aquatic habitat must inevitably decline and/or salinity increase.

References Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers to the Secretary of War, Part III, United States Army Corps of Engineers. 1876. Washington, DC, Government Printing Office, p. 409. Bacon, S.N., R.M. Burke, S.K. Pezzpane and A.S. Jayko. 2006. Last glacial maximum and Holocene lake levels of Owens Lake, eastern California, USA. Quaternary Science Reviews, 25:1264- 1282. Herbst, D.B. and R.W. Castenholz. 1994. Growth of the filamentous green algae Ctenocladus circinnatus (Chaetphorales: Chlorophyceae) in Figure 4. Sprinklers on the lakebed can provide water for wetland marsh vegetation. relation to environmental salinity. J Phycology, 30:588-593. algae, brine flies, and shrimp, to requiring Brine shrimp and brine flies both must Herbst, D.B. 2001. Gradients of salinity fresh water for varied species of aquatic spend energy to keep salts from entering stress, environmental stability and invertebrates, birds, and plants. Red- their body fluids and cells, so excess water chemistry as a templet for colored water of heavy salt-saturated salinity can be intolerable but they thrive defining habitat types and physiological brines is produced by halobacteria, a at moderate levels where they can avoid strategies in inland salt waters. form of primitive prokaryote cells with a predators or competition from species Hydrobiologia, 466:209-219. purple protein pigment that uses sunlight that are not salt-adapted (Herbst 2001). Los Angeles Department of Water and to pump protons across membranes and Fresher water coming from springs, seeps, Power. 2013. Owens Lake Master release energy stored as ATP, and that wild wells (uncontrolled outflows), and Project – transitioning to waterless also have protective red-orange pigments flood irrigation create wetlands supporting and water-wise solutions. Unpublished known as carotenoids (as in carrots). a diverse mix of aquatic life forms along document.

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 37 Reisner, M. 1993. Cadillac Desert – the American West and It’s Disappearing Water. Revised Edition. Penguin Books.

David Herbst is a research scientist with the Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory of the University of California. He has studied the physiology and ecology of saline lake algae and invertebrates of the Great Basin since 1976. His interests extend into the headwater streams of the Sierra Nevada Mountains where he investigates the effects of drought and climate change on watershed ecology.

Michael Prather is a conservationist living in Lone Pine, CA. He has focused his work on Owens Lake shorebird and waterfowl habitat protection and Figure 5. Avocets, stilts and other shorebirds are attracted by the new pools. enhancement for over 30 years. c

38 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE Terminal Lakes

Lakes Winnemucca and Pyramid: One Gone, One Saved

Joseph Eilers and Sandra Walker

For shame! For shame! You dare to cry out Liberty, when you hold us in places against our will, driving us from place to place as if we were beasts.

~ Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins (b. ~ 1844, d. 1891), born Thocmentony or Tocmetone, Paiute for “Shell Flower” (“Piutes” was the early spelling for what is currently spelled as “Paiutes”) (Hopkins 1883).

Death of Lake Winnemucca he outrage that Sarah Winnemucca expressed about the treatment of her Tpeople by the whites did not even touch upon the disaster to a lake that bore her name. Four decades after her death, the lake would be erased in the span of a generation. Here we describe a lake that is Figure 1. Satellite image of Pyramid Lake and the dry lakebed to the right that was Lake truly “dead” and an adjacent lake that so Winnemucca. The Truckee River enters Pyramid Lake from the south. far has avoided the same fate. One might think that eliminating a 30-mile-long lake would attract some Lahontan Lake complex (see Herbst et al., petroglyphs-ancient-rock-art-nevada/) in attention, especially one that hosted 30 this issue). As the climate dried, Pyramid the Americas (Benson et al. 2013). million birds and huge trout. However, and Winnemucca lakes became distinct It is likely that the extent of Lake all that remains of Lake Winnemucca lakes, but still connected by a wetland. Winnemucca varied with fluctuations is a dusty depression near the Black Pyramid Lake, which lies in a deep in climate, forcing tribes to periodically Rock Desert (home of the Burning Man trough, became the last known refuge move to more permanent sites such Festival) in northwestern Nevada (Figure for a remnant population of Lahontan as Pyramid Lake. Their modern-day 1). No signs, no tombstones, no obituaries cutthroat trout. Its shallower neighbor, descendants, the Paiutes, enjoyed the in the paper, no large display in the Lake Winnemucca, supported extensive region until encounters with the U.S. local museum . . . just gone. That’s what peripheral wetlands and attracted huge cavalry and white settlers became happens with a truly dead lake. There is populations of waterfowl, including increasingly unpleasant and eventually little life there now; birds, lizards, and the white pelican. This abundance of violent. Part of this sad history was rabbits are difficult to find. The only signs life also attracted early settlements documented by Sarah Winnemucca, of wildlife on a recent visit were gnats of newcomers to the continent. The daughter of Chief Winnemucca and at dusk. We offer a brief eulogy for Lake shores of the once-productive lake granddaughter of Chief Truckee (Hopkins Winnemucca and contrast that with a were home to tribes that produced 1883). What is now the Lake Winnemucca more optimist outlook for Pyramid Lake. the earliest documented petroglyphs dry lake bed was ingloriously called Lakes Winnemucca and Pyramid (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ Mud Lake by the white settlers. Sarah were once part of the Pleistocene news/2013/08/130815-lake-winnemucca- Winnemucca wrote of the early years

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 39 in which the Paiutes were rounded up on a reservation established in 1860. The reservation contained Winnemucca and Pyramid lakes as well extensive holdings beyond the lakes, but confined the Tribe to a small fraction of their former lands. Both lakes contained large trout populations that helped to sustain the Tribe. However, in 1867, the railroad divided the reservation in half leaving the Tribe with only one lake and a greatly diminished reservation. Both Lakes Winnemucca and Pyramid were maintained by inflow from the Truckee River and had similarly low salinity, about 3.5 g/L (Clarke 1924). As late as 1895, Lake Winnemucca was still a significant body of water when it was studied by Russell (1895). He indicated that Pyramid Lake was over 350 ft. Figure 2. Lake Winnemucca looking across the lake bed, 2014. Photo by Emily Stayner. deep and the deepest contour shown for Winnemucca was 30 ft. The 121 mile- long Truckee River is the sole outlet from Lake Tahoe and the flows were rapidly appropriated for irrigation and drinking water supplies. This trend accelerated with the completion of the Derby Dam in 1905, which diverted significant flows to the agricultural fields near Fallon. The final blow to Lake Winnemucca occurred with the construction of a road along the western shore of the lake that blocked the remaining inflows into the former wetland connecting Lake Winnemucca with Pyramid Lake. By the 1930s, Lake Winnemucca was nearly desiccated. Even its designation as a national wildlife refuge by President Roosevelt didn’t protect it from getting the life sucked out of it. Some views of the lake bed illustrate the now desolate terrain (Figures 2-6). Figure 3. Lake Winnemucca lake bed to the left and ancient tufa formations derived carbonate Assault on Pyramid Lake deposits, often formed in the vicinity of springs. Photo by Eldore Wood. During this period, Pyramid Lake was also declining. It’s estimated that extinction of the trout in1939. In what species and successfully reintroduce it the lake stage dropped by 80 feet from was good science, combined with a bit of into Pyramid Lake. Since then, 20-pound its height prior to white settlers. Salinity luck, a fishery scientist correctly identified trout have been caught and biologists increased and the number of Lahontan a remnant population of Lahontan are hopeful that the 1925 record of a 41- cutthroat trout declined because their cutthroat trout surviving in a creek on pound Lahontan cutthroat trout may one access to spawning grounds in the the Nevada/Utah border (Hickman and day be surpassed. Another large species Truckee River had been blocked by the Behnke 1979). How the trout ended up of fish, the cui-ui, a long-lived sucker formation of a large delta at the mouth several hundred miles from the Pyramid found only in Pyramid Lake, experienced of the Truckee River and by the Derby Lake is unknown, although the activities dramatically reduced numbers and only Dam. In 1936, the Pyramid Lake Paiute of “bucket biologists” would be a good three surviving age classes. This was Tribe was formally recognized by the guess. The emaciated trout were nursed also attributed to loss of access to the federal government and assumed control back to health and formed the recovery Truckee River. However, it is also making of Pyramid Lake and the surrounding brood stock. The remarkable find allowed a dramatic recovery and they are now lands, but too late to head off the apparent the Tribe to propagate the recovered

40 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE moving into spawning reaches of the Truckee River in large numbers. There is reason to be optimistic about the fisheries and water in Pyramid Lake; the lake levels have stabilized and salinity values, which reached 5.5 g/L, have also stopped increasing (Figure 7).

The Modern Battleground – The Courts The political status that comes from Tribal recognition enabled the Paiutes to negotiate directly with the federal government and has brought more resources to help resolve some of the long-standing conflicts. The Tribe now operates three hatcheries to produce both trout and cui-ui. The recognition of the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe was achieved Figure 4. Close-up of circular tufa formation at Lake Winnemucca. Photo by Eldore Wood. only after a long struggle involving numerous court actions. Two critical pieces of legislation that facilitated the path towards recovery of Pyramid Lake were the Endangered Species Act (1967) and the renewal of the Clean Water Act (1987), both of which provided the Tribe with a strong footing in court (Wagner and Lebo 1996). Additional water for the Tribe and the lake was made possible through completion of the three Bureau of Reclamation dams whose discharge flow to the Truckee River. These include Prosser Creek Dam (1962), Stampede Reservoir (1970) on the Little Truckee River, and the smaller Marble Bluff Dam (1975), which provides flow for a fishway to allow the trout and cui-ui to migrate upstream and spawn. The fishway is actually a lock that fills with water and allows the fish to migrate above the Truckee River delta that was exposed when the lake stage was lowered 80 feet. Figure 5. Looking across the expanse of Lake Winnemucca. Photo by Eldore Wood.

Figure 6. Tufas in the foreground frame the former lake bed of Lake Winnemucca. Photo by Emily Stayner.

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 41 Figure 7. Clear water lapping at the shore of Pyramid Lake, looking to the northeast. Photo by Eldore Wood.

However, as the previous articles providing their excellent photographs Lake, Nevada, amidst competing in this issue illustrate, there remains used in this article. interests. J Soil Water Conserv, March- a need for vigilance to guard against April:108-117. future attempts to access the water now References reaching Pyramid Lake. A glance at the Benson, L.V., E.M. Hattori, J. Southon Lake Winnemucca dry lake bed only and B. Aleck. 2013. Dating North Joe Eilers is a reinforces this need. The words of Sarah America’s oldest petroglyphs, professional hydrologist Winnemucca reveal how the white settlers Winnemucca Lake subbasin, Nevada. J and limnologist with and cavalry were viewed by this articulate Archaeological Sci, 40:4466–4476; doi: MaxDepth Aquatics, Inc. princess of the Paiute nation: 10.1016/j.jas.2013.06.022. in Bend, Oregon. He has Clarke, F.W. 1924. The composition been working on lakes in of the river and lake waters of the the western United States They came like a lion, yes like a United States. U.S. Geological Survey. since 1986. roaring lion, and have continued so Professional Paper 135. 199 pp. ever since. . . . Hickman, T.J. and R. J. Behnke.1979. Sandra Walker has Probable discovery of the original spent 30 years in the Pyramid Lake cutthroat trout. renewable energy Perhaps we can learn from misdeeds Progressive Fish-Culturist, 41:135-137. development sector with of the past, both in terms of dealings with Hopkins, S.W. 1883. Life Among the a current focus on energy people and how we treat the lakes that Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims. G.P. water nexus challenges enrich our lives. Putnam’s Sons, New York. 246 pp + in California. She has appendix. spent much of that time Acknowledgments Russell, I.C. 1895. Present and extinct involved in developing We thank Eldore Wood lakes of Nevada. Nat Geographic emerging technologies ([email protected]) and Monographs. June, 1895. in water and energy sectors that provide low-cost, Emily Stayner for spending time at Lake Wagner, P. and M.E. Lebo. 1996. low-input, low-impact solutions. c Winnemucca and Pyramid Lake and Managing the resources of Pyramid

42 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE Zak Slagle Student Corner What Makes for a Successful Bass Nest in Florida?

ass (Micropterus spp.) are an Bass Spawning and Bed Fishing their northern counterparts. The warmer important and popular freshwater Bass spawn in the spring, climate in Florida also provides spawning Bsportfish throughout the United aggressively guarding their nests and fish with a wider window of temperate States, especially in the state of Florida. attracting anglers as a result. The male weather. We decided to examine In 2006, bass anglers in Florida generated bass scoops out a shallow depression in biological and climate components that $1.25 billion, which supported more than the substrate and then courts a female. may attribute to differences in Florida 12,000 jobs (U.S. D.O.I. 2006). Due to Once the female lays eggs in the nest, the bass nest success. Specifically, the this major economic impact, the bass male fertilizes them and protects them objectives of our study were to assess fishery receives focused attention from the while they mature. Parental care includes biological and environmental factors Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation fanning the eggs to provide sufficient influencing nest success and to estimate Commission (FWC). The overall oxygen and aggressively defending the daily nest survival for Florida bass. A importance of this fishery in the state of eggs from nest predators such as bluegill better understanding of what drives a Florida has recently led FWC to develop (Lepomis macrochirus). The heightened bass nest to be successful could help us the Black Bass Management Plan with aggression also causes the fish to be more to understand the potential impacts of bed the intention to guide the next 30 years of vulnerable to anglers, because the fish will fishing. black bass management in Florida. Major attack anything it perceives to be a threat goals of FWC’s Black Bass Management to the nest, including lures. Snorkel Surveys Plan are to maintain and improve If a bass is caught off his nest, the With funding from the FWC, we Florida’s bass fishery. nest is unguarded and vulnerable to measured Florida largemouth bass nesting A component of the Black Bass predation. Nest predators eat the eggs success from 2010 through 2013. Our Management Plan is a focus on bass and destroy the nest. If enough bass are study site included four small ponds spawning as related to improving caught off nests in a lake, many nests southeast of Hawthorne, Florida. These Florida’s bass fishery, because anglers would be destroyed and the overall bass ponds ranged from 3-18 hectares and target spawning fish. FWC’s public population may suffer as a result. Studies were located on private, undeveloped surveys identified fishing for spawning on northern largemouth and smallmouth land closed to public fishing. Each year bass (or bed fishing) as a topic that basses (Micropterus salmoides salmoides of study, we completed weekly snorkel concerns Florida anglers. Anglers with and Micropterus dolomieu) showed that surveys starting in January and continuing such concern are worried that by allowing larger bass are more vulnerable to angling through May. the public to fish for spawning bass, and are better able to protect their nests We divided the shoreline of each nesting is disrupted and bass populations (Gingerich and Suski 2001; Parkos et al. lake into smaller transects. We randomly suffer as a result. Harmful effects of bed 2011). Anglers seek out large bass, and selected three to six transects for each fishing on bass fishing are possible, but in doing so are targeting the fish with the of the four lakes to examine on each the jury is still out – fewer young bass highest contributions to the following sampling date. Snorkelers swam each means greater food and habitat availability year’s fish (because larger fish have more transect in a zigzag pattern between for the young bass that remain. These offspring). shore and ~3 meters depth, looking for young bass grow faster and survive better Florida largemouth bass (Micropterus bass nests (Figure 1). When a snorkeler as a result, reducing or eliminating the salmoides floridanus) nesting success encountered a nest, the following impact of bed fishing. The relative impact has not been well studied. There are also variables were recorded: water depth, of bed fishing, whether harmful or helpful important differences in the biology of presence or absence of a guarding bass, to bass success, is understudied. The FWC Florida largemouth bass compared to size of the guarding bass, nest substrate, is investigating bass spawning and bed the northern largemouth and smallmouth and nest size. We marked the nest with fishing in order to improve the fishery and basses along with differences in climate a numbered flag, in order to relocate the alleviate stakeholder concerns. between regions. Florida largemouth nest for the next sampling. Snorkelers bass are different biologically as they revisited each nest until the nest fate was grow larger and at different rates than determined, either successful (the brood

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 43 smallmouth basses has not noted active nests without a guarding male fish, and if no male fish was located, the nest was counted as “failed.” In this study, there were many broods without a male bass guarding them. While some of these broods died, many of them survived to become independent from the nest, also called the swim-up fry stage. Due to the success of many of these nests, we hypothesize that in many cases the male guarding bass detected the snorkeler approaching and temporarily left the nest, then returned when the threat had passed. Florida largemouth bass had substantially lower nest fidelity than their northern counterparts, which could indicate lessened aggression as well. We calculated brood daily survival Figure 1. Snorkeler surveying a bass nest. and compared broods that differed based on water temperature, size of the nest, fish grew in size to be a free-swimming noted aquatic plants were frequently presence or absence of the male bass, size fry ball; Figure 2) or failed (the eggs/ used by Florida largemouth bass in nest of the male bass, depth, lake, and year. larvae grew fungus or were eaten). After construction (Figure 3). There were Florida largemouth daily nest survival data were collected, we used the nest many nests that incorporated aquatic was 0.88 in this study. This is similar to survival analysis within Program MARK plants (75 percent of surveyed nests), northern largemouth and smallmouth to calculate daily nest survival. We primarily Spatterdock (Nuphar advena) bass nest survival in other studies, which generated nest survival models including and Maidencane (Panicum hemitomon). varied between 0.86-0.96 (Steinhart et all possible combinations of each possible Nesting took place between January and al. 2005; Suski and Ridgway 2007). Nest factor, for a total of 64 models. May, peaking when water temperatures success in the northern species is driven reached 20-24°C (68-74°F). by presence of a guarding male, the size Nesting Success in Florida We only saw a guarding male bass of that male, and the size of the nest. In Over four years of nest surveys, we on 64 percent of the nests. Previous our study, we found that, like the northern surveyed a total of 334 bass nests. We research on northern largemouth and basses, presence of a male bass increased

Figure 2. Roughly two week old Florida largemouth bass fry, independent from the Figure 3. Typical Florida largemouth bass nest, using Spatterdock (Nuphar advena) roots for nest. stabilization.

44 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE nest survival more than any other evaluated factor (Figure 4). However, there was only a minor difference in nest survival between guarded and unguarded nests. The other factors we evaluated (depth, nest size, lake, year, male size, and substrate) had little impact on nest survival (Figures 5 and 6). If nest size or temperature of the lake had a strong effect on nest survival, we would expect to see a sloped line instead of the flat line seen in these figures. Unlike northern basses, Florida largemouth bass nesting success was not strongly driven by presence of a male bass, the size of that male, or the size of the nest in this study.

Implications for Bed Fishing in Florida Figure 4. Daily nest survival estimates and 95 percent confidence intervals averaged across all Florida largemouth bass displayed models for presence of a male guarding bass. less aggression in nest defense than northern relatives in our study. Our finding could be explained in several ways. Alligators in Florida lakes may have eaten the most aggressive bass. Lessened aggression may be a developed trait from coexisting with alligators. Multiple spawning attempts may also explain lessened aggression and the longer spawning season in Florida. Florida Largemouth Bass may have the luxury to more readily abandon their nests (e.g., due to predation or fishing pressure), because they can build a new nest or spawn again later in the spawning season. Comparatively, while northern basses have multiple spawning attempts, they only have a two- to three-week window of optimal lake temperatures in which Figure 5. Daily nest survival estimates and 95 percent confidence intervals averaged across all to spawn. From our work, it is unclear models for relative nest size (1 = smallest; 5 = biggest). as to whether the lessened aggression is specific to Florida largemouth or is due more to outside factors such as natural predators or a longer period of potential spawning due to a sustained warmer climate, respectively. Overall, the lessened aggression in Florida largemouth bass has implications for bed fishing management. For northern largemouth and smallmouth basses, loss of a guarding male bass has a major impact on nest survival. Loss of a guarding male bass is also detrimental to Florida largemouth nests, but appears to be less important. Bed fishing is potentially less harmful to Florida largemouth broods compared to northern counterparts because Florida largemouth bass nests seem less sensitive to nest Figure 6. Daily nest survival estimates and 95 percent confidence intervals averaged across all models for temperature in degrees Celsius.

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 45 abandonment. Florida largemouth bass are References Journal of Animal Ecology 76, 730–- less aggressive, meaning they would be Gingerich, A.J. and C.D. Suski. 2011. The 739. more difficult to catch off of their nests. role of progeny quality and male size U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). Therefore, fewer nests would then be in the nesting success of Smallmouth 2006. 2006 National survey of fishing, abandoned (i.e., fail) due to angling. Bass: integrating field and laboratory hunting, and wildlife-associated Our study illustrates the importance studies. Aquatic Ecology 45, 505-515. recreation – Florida report. of establishing the link between brood Parkos, J.J., D.H. Wahl and D.P. Philipp. survival and recruitment to the fishery. 2011. Influence of behavior and mating We do not understand how decreased success on brood-specific contribution Zak Slagle is a recent individual nest success impacts the fish to fish recruitment in ponds.Ecological master’s graduate of the population in following years. Outcomes Applications 21, 2576-2586. University of Florida’s from this study facilitate improved Steinhart, G.B., N.J. Leonard, R.A. Stein fisheries and aquatic evaluation of the effects of angling on and E.A. Marschall. 2005. Effects of sciences program (2014). bass fisheries in the State of Florida. The storms, angling, and nest predation He is interested in all FWC is currently investigating several during angling on Smallmouth Bass manner of fisheries aspects of bed fishing impacts that (Micropterus dolomieu) nest success. topics, most recently the include our study results along with other Canadian Journal of Fisheries and detectability of a rare fish investigations. Together we will help Aquatic Sciences 62, 2649-2660. species in Florida. c inform future policy decisions to better Suski, C.D. and M.S. Ridgway. 2007. our nation’s already great freshwater Climate and body size influence nest fisheries. survival in a fish with parental care.The

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46 Fall 2014 / LAKELINE Affiliate & Other News

California Lake Management Society (CALMS) NALMS Participation in Advisory Committee on Water The annual CALMS Information (ACWI) conference will be NALMS has served on this advisory committee since 2003 when it was invited held October 9-10, by the Department of Interior to become a member. The purpose of ACWI is to 2014 at the University “improve information for decision making about natural resources management and of California Davis. Day 1 includes a environmental protection.” Steve Heiskary was appointed by then-President Jeff full day of presentations, discussions, Schloss to serve as NALMS member on ACWI. Steve was recently re-appointed networking time, and a CALMS by the Department of Interior to continue to serve as NALMS representative on business meeting on the lovely UC Davis ACWI. One of the key activities of ACWI, in this past year, was to aid Assistant campus, followed by a buffet dinner Secretary Anne Castle in a review of USGS programming and budget. This was and live music at Sudwerk Restaurant & to be discussed, along with other topics, at the August 2014 meeting of ACWI. Brewery. Day 2 is a field trip by bus to Information on ACWI and its varied activities may be found at http://acwi.gov/ Camanche Reservoir, hosted by Dr. Alex aboutus.html. Horne. Themes of this year’s conference Another ACWI initiative NALMS was involved in, dealt with the Water include: mercury management, watershed Resources Adaptation to Climate Change Workgroup. The workgroup was connections, and Quagga mussels. commissioned to identify research, data, and policy necessary for effective Lodging for the CALMS conference will management and protection of water resources in the U.S. as the climate continues be handled by the Hallmark Inn at UC to change. ACWI invited NALMS to participate on this workgroup. Several Davis. NALMS members expressed interest in serving in this capacity and the NALMS Executive Committee selected Nancy Turyk to represent NALMS, with Dennis Washington State Lake McCauley as an alternate for the working group. Routes of communication between Protection Association Nancy and NALMS membership is through feedback obtained at the annual (WALPA) conference. Communication with the Board has been via email and an annual report. The Washington State Lake The workgroup recently completed a report “National Action Plan: Protection Association Priorities for Managing Freshwater Resources in a Changing Climate,” which is (WALPA) will be hosting available on the ACWI website at http://acwi.gov/climate_wkg/Climate_water_ their 27th annual conference recommendations_rptapril_21_2014_final_draft.pdf. in beautiful Chelan, WA, September Should you have any questions on ACWI and NALMS involvement feel free to 30-October 2, 2014. Campbell’s Resort on contact Steve Heiskary at [email protected]. Lake Chelan will serve as the conference Questions on the Climate Change Workgroup may be directed to Nancy Turyk venue. The conference theme is “Applied at [email protected]. Limnology.” Registration and exhibit set-up will begin at 12:00 p.m. Tuesday, Steven Heiskary September 30, during the pre-conference Research Scientist workshop offerings. Tentative session EAO Division topics, to begin October 1st, include: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency • Lake Chelan • Student research • Harmful Algae Blooms • Volunteer Monitoring • Fish • Aquatic Invertebrates • Invasive plants

Fall 2014 / LAKELINE 47 Bill Jones Literature Search

Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems Human and Ecological Risk Assessment Quinn, A., B. Gallardo and D.C. Aldridge. 2014. Quantifying Mastitsky, S.E., A.Y. Karatayev and L.E. Burlakova. 2014. the ecological niche overlap between two interacting invasive Parasites of aquatic exotic invertebrates: identification of species: the zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) and the potential risks posed to the Great Lakes. Human and Ecol Risk quagga mussel (Dreissena rostriformis bugensis). Aquat Conserv: Assess, 20(3): 743-763. Marine and Freshwater Ecosys, 24(3): 324-337. International Journal of Water Resources Development Ecology of Freshwater Fish Mitchell, B., C. Priddle, D. Shrubsole, B. Veale and D. Walters. Muir, A.M., P. Vecsei, M. Power, C.C. Krueger and J.D. Reist. 2014. Integrated water resource management: lessons from 2014. Morphology and life history of the Great Slave Lake conservation authorities in Ontario, Canada. Internat J Water ciscoes (Salmoniformes: Coregonidae). Ecol of Freshwater Fish, Resour Develop, 30(3): 460-474. 23(3): 453-469. Journal of the American Water Resources Association Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Kaushal, S.S., P.M. Mayer, P.G. Vidon, R.M. Smith, Finlayson, B.J., J.M. Eilers, and H.A. Huchko. 2014. Fate and M.J. Pennino, T.A. Newcomer, S. Duan, C. Welty and K.T. Belt. behavior of rotenone in Diamond Lake, Oregon, USA following 2014. Land use and climate variability amplify carbon, nutrient, invasive tui chub eradication. Environ Toxicol Chem, 33(7): and contaminant pulses: a review with management implications. 1650-1655. J Amer Water Resour Assoc, 50(3): 585-614.

Freshwater Biology Dreps, C., A.L. James, G. Sun and J. Boggs. 2014. Water Molot, L.A., S.B. Watson, I.F. Creed, C.G. Trick, S.K. McCabe, balances of two Piedmont headwater catchments: implications M.J. Verschoor, R.J. Sorichetti, C. Powe, J.J. Venkiteswaran for regional hydrologic landscape classification.J Am Water and S.L.Schiff. 2014. A novel model for cyanobacteria bloom Resour Assoc, 50(4): 1063-1079. formation: the critical role of anoxia and ferrous iron. Fresh Biol, 59(6): 1323-1340. Journal of Applied Ecology Poikane, S., R. Portielje, M. Berg, G. Phillips, S. Brucet, Berthon, V., B. Alric, F. Rimet and M.E. Perga. 2014 Sensitivity L. Carvalho, U. Mischke, I. Ott, H. Soszka and J. Van Wichelen. and responses of diatoms to climate warming in lakes heavily 2014. Defining ecologically relevant water quality targets for influenced by humans.Fresh Biol, 59(8): 1755-1767. lakes in Europe. J Applied Ecol, 51(3): 592-602.

Ger, K.A., L.-A. Hansson and M. Lürling. 2014. Understanding Journal of Applied Toxicology cyanobacteria‐zooplankton interactions in a more eutrophic Roegner, A.F., B. Brena, G. González‐Sapienza and B. Puschner. world. Fresh Biol, 59(9): 1783-1798. 2014. Microcystins in potable surface waters: toxic effects and removal strategies. J Applied Toxicol, 34(5): 441-457. Yuan, L.L., A.I. Pollard, S. Pather, J.L. Oliver and L. D’Anglada. 2014. Managing microcystin: identifying national‐scale Journal of Environmental Science and Health thresholds for total nitrogen and chlorophyll a. Fresh Biol, 59(9): Vijayaraghavan, K., U.M. Joshi, H. Ping, S. Reuben and 1970-1981. D.F. Burger. 2014. In situ removal of dissolved and suspended contaminants from a eutrophic pond using hybrid sand-filter. J Fundamental and Applied Limnology/Archiv für Hydrobiologie Environ Sci Health, 49(10): 1176-1186. Carey, C.C., K.L. Cottingham, N.G. Hairston and K.C. Weathers, Jr. 2014. Trophic state mediates the effects of a large colonial Journal of Fish Biology cyanobacterium on phytoplankton dynamics. Fundamental Appl Jacobsen, L., H. Baktoft, N. Jepsen, K. Aarestrup, S. Berg and Limnol/Archiv für Hydrobiol, 184(4): 247-260. C. Skov. 2014. Effect of boat noise and angling on lake fish behaviour. J Fish Biol, 84(6): 1768-1780.

(LITERATURE SEARCH . . . continued on page 10)

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