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Evaluating Habitat Restoration in the St. Clair-Detroit River System

Fischer, Jason L
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7226-6500
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1576160707431634

Abstract Details

2019, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Toledo, Biology (Ecology).
Large waterways have rich histories of cultural advancement and prosperity. However, economic development has often conflicted with ecosystem health. In the St. Clair-Detroit River System, overharvest, development of riparian areas, and construction of navigation channels lead to the collapse of fisheries and loss of vital habitats. Harvest and water quality regulations have allowed the recovery of some fishes, but the legacy of habitat loss remained a detriment for other species. Therefore, numerous habitat remediation projects were implemented in the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers to improve ecosystem health. As part of the adaptive management cycle, I evaluated two suites of projects to determine fish use and maturation of the remediated habitats. First, I compared fish assemblages and relative abundances at shoreline softening projects to nearby control sites along the banks of the St. Clair River. My evaluation of these projects provides insight into the ability of shoreline softening to remediate habitat degradation in the St. Clair River and other connecting channels of the Laurentian Great Lakes. Shoreline softening involved replacing steel seawalls with sloped banks and adding large woody debris, rock substrates, and native vegetation to increase habitat heterogeneity and decrease depths. Higher catch-per-unit effort of juvenile fish, some species of management priority (e.g., smallmouth bass, Micropterus dolomieu), and the fish assemblage as a whole was observed at remediation sites than at nearby control sites, indicating the projects provided nursery habitat for some fishes. Second, I evaluated the maturation of lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) spawning habitat (i.e., reefs) remediation projects. Prior to my evaluations, few assessments of reef maturation had been conducted, thus, my evaluation is among the first to describe maturation and longevity of constructed reefs in the Laurentian Great Lakes. I found that although geomorphic surveys indicated reefs were placed where accumulation of fine sediments was expected to be low, the reefs remained vulnerable to sediment accumulation. Therefore, development of maintenance methods may be necessary to maximize the long-term efficacy of the reefs. Lastly, I assessed the first 15 years of the reef remediation program to define the strategic process for locating remediation opportunities. Guidance for allocating resources and prioritizing assessments during the project design and placement phase of remediation was lacking at the start of the program. Therefore, I used the reef remediation program as a case study to identify an ordered process for project development and site assessment. The ordered process for assessing remediation sites, I identified in the case study, provides a structured approach for directing project development resources to areas with more uncertainty and where learning is most critical. These assessments complete the feedback loop of the adaptive management cycle and identify opportunities to advance future remediation projects. By scaling evaluations from the project to program levels, learning within a program is expanded to knowledge transfer across programs.
Christine Mayer (Advisor)
Jonathan Bossenbroek (Committee Member)
Aline Cotel (Committee Member)
Edward Roseman (Committee Member)
Song Qian (Committee Member)
168 p.
Environmental Science
Habitat Restoration; Fish Spawning Habitat; Reef; Great Lakes; Connecting Channels; Riparian; Fish Community; St Clair River; Detroit River; Shallow Water Habitat

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Fischer, J. L. (2019). Evaluating Habitat Restoration in the St. Clair-Detroit River System [Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1576160707431634

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Fischer, Jason. Evaluating Habitat Restoration in the St. Clair-Detroit River System. 2019. University of Toledo, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1576160707431634.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Fischer, Jason. "Evaluating Habitat Restoration in the St. Clair-Detroit River System." Doctoral dissertation, University of Toledo, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=toledo1576160707431634

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

toledo1576160707431634
204
© 2019, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Evaluating Habitat Restoration in the St. Clair-Detroit River System by Jason L Fischer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Toledo and OhioLINK.