Tuesday, May 27, 2008
203

Power to the people: Enlisting flyfishing professionals to monitor the effects of climate change on streams

Emily A. Bartusek and J.D. Ostermiller. Utah Division of Water Quality, 288 North 1460 West, PO Box 144870, Salt Lake City, UT 84114

Global climate change is arguably the most important ecological issue faced worldwide. Climate models predict alterations to temperature and precipitation patterns, but little is known about how these changes will alter stream ecosystems.  One way to monitor changes to stream biota is to quantify changes to the emergence patterns of aquatic insects, because the timing and duration of emergence for many taxa is coupled to the thermal regime of streams.  We are implementing a monitoring program that enlists fly fishing professionals to monitor changes in the emergence patterns of aquatic invertebrates throughout Utah.  Volunteers were sent standardized data forms and have been asked to record the beginning, peak, and end of emergence for readily identifiable taxa that have a synchronous emergence.  The overall response to our request was generally positive, and we were able to obtain reasonable coverage of sites statewide.  In this poster, we present the framework that we used for adapting citizen observations into potentially meaningful scientific data.  We propose that such programs could be globally adopted via web-based inputs to provide a cost-effective and ecologically relevant means of monitoring the effects of global climate change on stream ecosystems.

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