Browsing by Author "Wegscheider, Bernhard"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Considering Fish as Recipients of Ecosystem Services Provides a Framework to Formally Link Baseline, Development, and Post-operational Monitoring Programs and Improve Aquatic Impact Assessments for Large Scale Developments
    (Springer, 2022-05-21) Brown, Carolyn J. M.; Curry, R. Allen; Gray, Michelle A.; Lento, Jennifer; MacLatchy, Deborah L.; Monk, Wendy A.; Pavey, Scott A.; St-Hilaire, André; Wegscheider, Bernhard; Munkittrick, Kelly R.
    In most countries, major development projects must satisfy an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process that considers positive and negative aspects to determine if it meets environmental standards and appropriately mitigates or offsets negative impacts on the values being considered. The benefits of before-after-control-impact monitoring designs have been widely known for more than 30 years, but most development assessments fail to effectively link pre- and post-development monitoring in a meaningful way. Fish are a common component of EIA evaluation for both socioeconomic and scientific reasons. The Ecosystem Services (ES) concept was developed to describe the ecosystem attributes that benefit humans, and it offers the opportunity to develop a framework for EIA that is centred around the needs of and benefits from fish. Focusing an environmental monitoring framework on the critical needs of fish could serve to better align risk, development, and monitoring assessment processes. We define the ES that fish provide in the context of two common ES frameworks. To allow for linkages between environmental assessment and the ES concept, we describe critical ecosystem functions from a fish perspective to highlight potential monitoring targets that relate to fish abundance, diversity, health, and habitat. Finally, we suggest how this framing of a monitoring process can be used to better align aquatic monitoring programs across pre-development, development, and post-operational monitoring programs.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Mactaquac Aquatic Ecosystem Study Report Series 2018-033, PRELIMINARY FISH HABITAT AND COMMUNITY ASSESSMENT RELATED TO THE FUTURE OPTIONS OF THE MACTAQUAC GENERATING STATION
    (2018) Wegscheider, Bernhard; Linnansaari, Tommi; Ndong, Mouhamed; Ogilvie, Jae; Schneider, Matthias; Kopecki, Ianina; Dolson-Edge, Rebecca; Samways, Kurt; Haralampides, Katy; Curry, R. Allen
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Quantitative modelling of existing and future fish habitat in the Saint John River, NB, Canada
    (University of New Brunswick, 2020) Wegscheider, Bernhard; Linnansaari, Tommi
    The aging Mactaquac Hydroelectricity Generating Station (MGS) on the Wolastoq | Saint John River (SJR) is one of Canada's largest dams and it is reaching the end of its service life. My research focused on quantifying existing and future fish habitat downstream of the MGS, considering current management options to renew the infrastructure in the short-term with a longer-term solution of rebuilding or removing. In detail, my project applied a hydraulic-habitat model to assess habitat change and predicted effects on fish communities for future regulated and climate-induced flow regimes. Fish communities were surveyed and related to habitat characteristics both up- and downstream of the facility, and habitat requirements were defined for three distinct fish assemblages based on meso-scale habitat use and expert opinion. Modelling predictions suggest that dam operation and flow regulation resulted in a general decrease in habitat availability for each fish assemblage when being compared to the historic flow regime prior to the construction of the MGS. Furthermore, under the current dam operation scheme, rheophilic species were predicted to be limited in habitat conditions during the critical summer low flow period, with habitat availability averaging below 20% and never exceeding 30% of the wetted channel area at any day in the time record (1968 to 2015). The implementation of environmental flows ranging around the proposed Q50 flow rate was predicted to minimize the duration of stress events and increase the availability of suitable habitats on a community scale. Similarly, a future climate induced flow regime under a dam removal scenario was predicted to result in improved conditions for fish species. Recommendations informed by this thesis aim to improve habitat conditions for multiple species and are given to hydropower and fisheries managers. Proposed strategies include: i) implementing environmental flows ranging around a Q50 flow rate for the SJR, and ii) continuing fish community monitoring in the SJR and extending surveys to seasons other than the summer period to gain better insights into flow-ecology relationships of imperiled species.