W3 Seminar: Landscape support for salmonids: Transforming science into outcomes in Alaska

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Landscape support for salmonids: Transforming science into outcomes in Alaska

Mark Rains, Chief Science Officer, State of Florida; Professor, School of Geosciences, University of South Florida

Abstract: We would all like our science to achieve outcomes, with demonstrable benefits accruing to the environment and society. However, altogether too often we encounter institutional and cultural barriers that separate our science from decision-making. So, how can we overcome these barriers and transform our science into outcomes? The first step is to identify those barriers and to understand why those barriers exist. Many are institutional and exist by design; others are cultural and are simply part of who we are as individuals and communities. When we understand these barriers, we can chart pathways to overcome them, and more effectively transform our science into outcomes. In recent years, an interdisciplinary team of scientists and stakeholders have done so in south-central Alaska, overcoming everything from institutional barriers in academia to cultural barriers in the community. Together, scientists from throughout the nation worked on coequal ground with stakeholders from within the community, building a shared knowledge informed by local values which has now become part of the fabric of the community. That shared knowledge shows that the entire landscape supports salmonids. Mass and energy are transported throughout this landscape, from aquifers, to hillslopes, to slope and riparian wetlands, and to salmon-bearing streams. Groundwater plays a disproportionately important role, discharging from seeps and springs to slope and riparian wetlands and thereafter to streams. It augments streamflow, comprising ~100% of streamflow in late summer and throughout winter. It also modulates stream temperatures, providing cold-water refugia in summer and warm-water refugia in winter. It also provides nutrient subsidies to wetlands and streams, enhancing the production of above-ground biomass in the wetlands which then serves as the primary food source for the stream invertebrates that feed the salmonids. Crucially, the same groundwater that connects this landscape and supports the salmonids also serves as the primary water-supply for the people in the community, creating a potential single point-of-failure for the combined socioecosystem. These collaborative efforts have heightened stakeholder awareness of the tight linkages between limited groundwater resources, slope and riparian wetlands, and salmon-bearing streams, empowering the community conversations and local decision-making that have resulted in demonstrable changes to policies and practices throughout the region.