February 23, 2015, 10:00-11:15 PDT

Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals Tribal Climate Change Webinar Series

Presenters: David Graves, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC), and Bob Heinith, technical consultant for CRITFC

Description: The Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) assists its member tribes (Nez Perce, Yakama, Warm Springs and Umatilla) in efforts to establish of climate change adaptive management strategies and actions that will protect their First Foods. This is only possible by understanding climate change impacts specific to tribal ceded areas and larger ecosystems and habitats in which First Foods depend upon. This requires: 1) developing quantitative and qualitative analyses including data and information prioritization and organization through field studies, literature review and other assessments, 2) integration and enhancement of existing assessment tools such as climate, hydrological, temperature and fish survival models, and, 3) collaboration and active participation in the various Columbia Basin and international water management forums (i.e. Columbia River Treaty review; Pacific Northwest Climate Cooperative). The goals of this work are to: 1) assess First Food vulnerability under the most robust downscaled, future climate change projections and integrating ecosystem function, hydrogeneration and flood risk into these projections, and, 2) determine adaptive management First Food vulnerability. The scope of this work ranges from the Canadian strategies to address headwaters to the mouth of the Columbia River. The CRITFC Information System (CIS) is the primary modeling tool for this task and outputs of this tool will be presented on the webinar. Discussion will also include results of several modeling efforts of water temperature under future climate change scenarios in select Columbia River Basin tributaries.

Part 2 – Adaptation of Salmonids to Climate Change Presenter: Shawn Narum, Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC)

Description: Anthropogenic climate change is well documented and expected to affect biodiversity richness and distribution according to species’ capacities for adaptation or relocation. Since many freshwater fishes have limited relocation potential, it is critical to evaluate the potential for species and populations to adapt to warming environments. Here we discuss physiological and genetic mechanisms for thermal adaptation in salmon and trout in the Pacific Northwest using redband trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) as a case study. This species is widely distributed in the interior Columbia River drainage and is typically found in cool montane streams, but it also occupies desert streams where water temperatures can greatly exceed thermal preferences (>30° C). Studies indicate that redband trout have evolved over generations to desert stream environments through an adaptive heat shock response that conserves energy and increased heart rate to deliver more oxygen to tissues. These genetic and physiological indicators are being developed as biomarkers for broad-scale evaluation of redband trout in the Pacific Northwest in order to predict which populations are most likely to adapt over time or be extirpated under scenarios of climate change.

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