A UNBC Environmental Science Professor’s paper highlights the negative impacts of the 2021 heat dome and atmospheric rivers on rivers in BC and the Pacific Northwest.
“What was surprising for us is just how quickly the water temperatures responded,” said Dr. Stephen Déry, the paper’s lead author.
“Some rivers in the Nechako watershed for instance saw a rise of six degrees in water temperatures over the course of one week.”
Déry said there was less of a response to the atmospheric rivers, despite air temperatures increasing by five degrees during the course of the event.
He added the most adverse impacts are felt by fish.
“We think about trout, char, salmon, and white sturgeon,” Déry explained.
“If we have excessive water temperatures, that can cause additional stress for these fish species, as well it tends to limit the dissolved oxygen in water, so that can also have an impact on fish species.”
Déry said there’s an ever-increasing need to not only expand stream temperature monitoring, but also to extend the study to encompass additional extreme hydrometeorological events, including floods and droughts to mitigate their impacts.
“The UNBC research team is dedicating considerable effort to enhance monitoring of freshwater temperatures, and other variables, as extreme hydrometeorological events continue to afflict northern BC,” Déry said.
The full paper can be found here.