Life Sciences Commons^™

Climate Change And Utah Ski Resorts: Impacts, Perceptions, And Adaptation Strategies, Emily J. Wilkins, Hadia Akbar, Tara C. Saley, Rachel Hager, Colten M. Elkin, Patrick Belmont, Courtney G. Flint, Jordan W. Smith

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Climate change is a threat to ski resorts, the ski industry, and mountain communities that rely on ski tourism. Ski resorts may be able to mitigate some of the social and economic impacts caused by climate change with proactive adaptation strategies. Using historical weather data, future climate projections, and interviews with ski resort managers in Utah (United States), this research investigates the effects of climate change on ski resorts across the state. We examine temperature change at all resorts within the state from 1980–2018 and climate projections from 2021–2100 under different climate change scenarios (RCPs 2.6, 4.5, and 8.5). We …

Water Development, Consumptive Water Uses, And The Great Salt Lake, Sarah E. Null, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Great Salt Lake (GSL) covers 5500 km² (2100 mi²) at its unimpacted elevation and is the eighth largest saline lake in the world. Its highly productive food web supports millions of migratory birds and the economic value of the lake is estimated at $1.5 billion US dollars in 2019. Droughts and wet cycles have caused huge fluctuations in lake level, area, and salinities, and this variation has masked anthropogenic impacts. Recent work, however, has determined that consumptive water uses in the watershed have depleted inflows by approximately 39%, with 63% used by agriculture, 11% by cities, 13% …

Twentieth Century Geomorphic Changes Of The Lower Green River In Canyonlands National Park, Utah: An Investigation Of Timing, Magnitude And Process, Alexander E. Walker, John C. Schmidt, Paul E. Grams

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Since the early 20^th century, the Green River, the longest tributary of the Colorado River, has narrowed, decreasing available riparian and aquatic habitat.

Initially, the widespread establishment of non-native tamarisk was considered to be the primary driver of channel narrowing. An alternative hypothesis postulated that changes in hydrology drove narrowing. Reductions in total streamflow and changes to flow regime occurred due to wide-spread water development, decreased snowmelt flood magnitude, and the increased cyclicity of wet and dry years. The two hypotheses agree on channel narrowing, but each influences modern river management differently. A tamarisk-driven model of narrowing implies that …

Salinity Controls Phytoplankton Response To Nutrient Enrichment In The Great Salt Lake, Utah, Usa, Amy M. Marcarelli, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh, O. Griset

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

To examine how salinity and nutrient supply interact to control phytoplankton community composition, nutrient limitation, and dinitrogen (N2) fixation rates in the Great Salt Lake (Utah, USA), we conducted a series of bioassay experiments with plankton from both Gilbert Bay, where salinities are near 160 g·L–1, and Farmington Bay, where salinities range from 10 to 90 g·L–1. Six-day nutrient addition bioassay experiments showed that the extant phyto plankton communities in both bays were limited by nitrogen (N). However, in 28- to 30-day factorial bioassay experiments in which both salinities and nutrient supply were manipulated, phosphorus stimulated chlorophyll a as much …

Effects Of Daphnia Availability On Growth And Food Consumption Of Rainbow Trout In Two Utah Reservoirs, R. Tabor, Chris Luecke, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

We monitored the diet and growth of stocked rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss in two Utah reservoirs during 1986 and 1989–1990. For the first month after stocking, juvenile rainbow trout in both reservoirs fed extensively on large Daphnia spp. In East Canyon Reservoir where Daphnia were abundant, this pattern continued throughout the summer, fall, and winter. Growth of rainbow trout in East Canyon Reservoir was generally good throughout 1989–1990. In Causey Reservoir, where Daphnia were less abundant and smaller, rainbow trout fed progressively less on smaller Daphnia throughout the summer, fall, and winter, while other prey items (snails, aquatic insects, and …