Modeling Temperature Regime and Physical Habitat Impacts from Restored Streamflow

Water infrastructure updates at Grand Canyon National Park (GRCA) provide an opportunity to restore natural flow to Bright Angel Creek, adding an additional ~20% to baseflow. This creek provides habitat for endangered humpback chub (Gila cypha) and invasive brown trout (Salmo trutta). We assess how increased flow may alter habitat and how that change may impact native and nonnative species using physical habitat modeling and statistical analysis of stream temperature data. We used System for Environmental Flow Analysis to calculate the change in habitat area for both species in the lower 2.1 km of the creek before and after the increased flow. Results indicate a slight increase in available habitat for juveniles of both species and a slight decrease for spawning brown trout. We used regression modeling to relate daily average air temperature to stream temperature and periods of increased discharge during water system maintenance were used to model the temperatures during likely future conditions. Both high and low stream temperature were dampened due to the added water resulting in fewer days with suitable spawning temperature and more days with suitable growth temperature for humpback chub. Fewer suitable days for growth upstream but more suitable days downstream, were predicted for brown trout. Compared to other streams that sustain populations of humpback chub, flow conditions for Bright Angel Creek provide fewer days throughout the year with suitable temperatures, particularly during the winter months. Juvenile humpback chub rearing may improve through the restoration of flow however the presence of predatory brown trout complicates the net beneficial impact.