SEMINAR: CWR Presents

Deadwood Reservoir was created in 1931 by impoundment of the Deadwood River by Deadwood Dam. It is located in west-central Idaho, USA, at approximately 1600 m above sea level, in an extremely harsh environment where winter temperatures regularly reach 30 degrees below zero. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) has historically operated the reservoir for irrigation water supply, flood control, and limited hydroelectric power production. More recently, the reservoir has also been used to augment stream flows for out-migrating salmon.

In 2005, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service completed a Biological Opinion that required BOR to investigate flexibility in its operation of Deadwood Reservoir to improve conditions for bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) in the Deadwood River and Reservoir. In response, a 5-year investigation of reservoir operations flexibility for Deadwood River and Reservoir was instituted, including a holistic watershed assessment, coupled with adaptive management. One of the important management tools developed by the investigation was a coupled three-dimensional hydrodynamic-ecological model of Deadwood Reservoir (ELCOM-CAEDYM) that was used to simulate changes in reservoir operations in order to assess conformance to the terms and conditions of the Biological Opinion. The complexity of ELCOM-CAEDYM required collection and evaluation of substantial amounts of physical, chemical, and biological data from Deadwood Reservoir and its tributaries.

This talk will give an overview of the main physical and ecological characteristics of Deadwood Reservoir under historical dam operations and illustrate the environmental changes in response to different operational scenarios simulated with ELCOM-CAEDYM. The results show how reservoir operations can potentially affect habitat conditions and energy sources for bull trout, as listed in the Biological Opinion.

Short Bio,

Dr. Leticia Chamelete de Vilhena is a Research Associate at the Centre for Water Research at the University of Western Australia. She completed her undergraduate studies in Biological Sciences at the University of São Paulo in Brazil and has recently finished her Ph.D. at the Centre for Water Research, which explored the effects of climate change on the physics and biology of diverse aquatic systems. Leticia’s main research interests include climate change, physical-biological coupling, and the structure of phytoplankton populations in aquatic bodies.

PS* This seminar is free and open to the public & no RSVP required.

****All Welcome****