Environmental flows in the context of unconventional natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale
| dc.contributor.author | Buchanan, Brian P. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Auerbach, Daniel A. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | McManamay, Ryan A. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Taylor, Jason M. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Flecker, Alexander S. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Archibald, Josephine A. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Fuka, Daniel R. | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Walter, M. Todd | en |
| dc.contributor.department | Biological Systems Engineering | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2020-04-15T19:28:59Z | en |
| dc.date.available | 2020-04-15T19:28:59Z | en |
| dc.date.issued | 2017-01 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | Quantitative flow-ecology relationships are needed to evaluate how water withdrawals for unconventional natural gas development may impact aquatic ecosystems. Addressing this need, we studied current patterns of hydrologic alteration in the Marcellus Shale region and related the estimated flow alteration to fish community measures. We then used these empirical flow-ecology relationships to evaluate alternative surface water withdrawals and environmental flow rules. Reduced high-flow magnitude, dampened rates of change, and increased low-flow magnitudes were apparent regionally, but changes in many of the flow metrics likely to be sensitive to withdrawals also showed substantial regional variation. Fish community measures were significantly related to flow alteration, including declines in species richness with diminished annual runoff, winter low-flow, and summer median-flow. In addition, the relative abundance of intolerant taxa decreased with reduced winter high-flow and increased flow constancy, while fluvial specialist species decreased with reduced winter and annual flows. Stream size strongly mediated both the impact of withdrawal scenarios and the protection-afforded by environmental flow standards. Under the most intense withdrawal-scenario, 75% of reference headwaters and creeks (drainage areas < 99 km(2)) experienced at least 78% reduction in summer flow, whereas little change was predicted for larger rivers. Moreover, the least intense withdrawal scenario still-reduced summer flows by at least 21% for 50% of headwaters and creeks. The observed 90th quantile flow-ecology relationships indicate that such alteration could reduce species richness by 23% or more. Seasonally varying environmental flow standards and high fixed minimum flows protected the most streams from hydrologic alteration, but common minimum flow standards left numerous locations vulnerable to substantial flow alteration. This study clarifies how additional water demands in the region may adversely affect freshwater biological integrity. The-results make clear that policies to limit or prevent water withdrawals from smaller streams can reduce the risk of ecosystem impairment. | en |
| dc.description.admin | Public domain – authored by a U.S. government employee | en |
| dc.description.notes | We thank Drs. Jean Brennan, Paul Seelbach, J. R. Rigby, and two anonymous reviewers for insightful conceptual and editorial suggestions that strengthened the manuscript. Robert Miltner of Ohio EPA contributed fish data to the database. M. Weltman-Fahs provided GIS support. We also thank W. Fisher for initiating and managing the early phases of this project. Brian Buchanan, Jason Taylor, and Todd Walter were supported by grant# 2012-03 from the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative. Dan Auerbach was supported by a NatureNet Fellowship from The Nature Conservancy. Ryan McManamay was supported through a grant with the Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office, through Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). | en |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative [2012-03]; NatureNet Fellowship from The Nature Conservancy; Department of Energy, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office, through Oak Ridge National Laboratory; U.S. Department of EnergyUnited States Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-AC05-00OR22725] | en |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | https://doi.org/10.1002/eap.1425 | en |
| dc.identifier.eissn | 1939-5582 | en |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1051-0761 | en |
| dc.identifier.issue | 1 | en |
| dc.identifier.pmid | 28052494 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10919/97637 | en |
| dc.identifier.volume | 27 | en |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.rights | CC0 1.0 Universal | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ | en |
| dc.subject | Appalachia | en |
| dc.subject | environmental flows | en |
| dc.subject | fish | en |
| dc.subject | flow regime | en |
| dc.subject | hydraulic fracturing | en |
| dc.subject | Marcellus Shale | en |
| dc.title | Environmental flows in the context of unconventional natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale | en |
| dc.title.serial | Ecological Applications | en |
| dc.type | Article - Refereed | en |
| dc.type.dcmitype | Text | en |
| dc.type.dcmitype | StillImage | en |
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