Climate Change Challenge
Freshwater Habitat Degradation, loss of biodiversity
Aquatic ecosystems are areas of relatively high biodiversity in the landscapes where they are found. They provide both habitat and migration corridors to a myriad of species including plants, fishes, amphibians, birds, mammals, and insects. Beginning in 2003, states in the Northeast have integrated ecological principles with imperiled species observations in management plans to protect aquatic biodiversity. More recent frameworks additionally consider general impacts from climate change (e.g., BioMap 2)and a measure of habitat heterogeneity that promotes biodiversity in a changing climate (BioMap 3). None of these frameworks, however, define biodiversity metrics, incorporate climate change specifically, nor evaluate alternate scenarios.
In 2022, we started a project funded by the U.S. Geological Survey Northeast Climate Adaptation Center to identify land protection and restoration actions that optimize aquatic biodiversity protection in the face of a changing climate. The project compiled a database of fish samples from freshwater streams and rivers from northeast states (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) and developed standardized aquatic biodiversity metrics in collaboration with partners. In FY25, we also compiled freshwater mussel data from both lentic (lakes and ponds) and lotic (rivers and streams) habitats from the same states, providing an opportunity to simultaneously investigate fish and mussel distribution and biodiversity. Our ultimate goal was to evaluate potential changes to biotic assemblages [fishes and freshwater mussels] with changing climates and identify management actions (e.g. revegetation, dam removal) that are most likely to mitigate impacts from climate change.
Project Alignment with ResilientMass Plan Priority Actions
This project addresses the following 2023 ResilientMass Plan priority actions:
- Aquatic biodiversity conservation: freshwater mussels
- Evaluation of climate change impacts on common species
- Evaluation of shifts in habitats and species distributions
- Identification of areas with high native aquatic biodiversity to help prioritize aquatic climate adaptation actions as the climate changes
Climate Resilience Project Scope
The project compiled freshwater fish and mussel data from New England states and modelled current and projected species and biodiversity metric distributions with anticipated changes in climate and identified management actions that are most likely to mitigate climate change impacts. The project is upon completion with goals to publish freshwater mussel diversity and aquatic biodiversity-climate change management scenario manuscripts along with data and software releases and make model results readily available to managers. Further, the project aimed to overlay existing and climate projected Wood Turtle distribution with fish and mussel biodiversity projections to further identify watershed-scale biodiversity change.
Metrics and Results
Results of the project include:
- Modelled current and projected distributions of species and developed assemblage metrics for freshwater mussels and fish for Massachusetts and for New England.
- Submitted three accepted peer-reviewed manuscripts for freshwater fish, freshwater mussel, and climate change-management scenario efforts.
- Identification of potential management actions that can help mitigate climate change including watershed-scale reforestation.
Best Practices and Lessons Learned
Standardizing datasets collected by different agencies, using different methods, continues to be a need to facilitate region-wide assessments.
Further Action
Modelled current and projected distributions of freshwater mussels and fish under climate change along with management scenarios will be incorporated into prioritization efforts for future monitoring and protection and restoration actions to help mitigate anticipated impacts of climate change. Further investigation is needed to assess the mussel and fish dispersal potential into new suitable watersheds as the climate changes.