Keith Gido researches freshwater fish communities and how environmental changes reshape aquatic ecosystems. He’s a distinguished professor at Kansas State University.
Gido said dams and other barriers can make it more difficult for native fish to survive drought.
“Historically there's been drought, and fish communities have survived,” Gido said. “Humans have fragmented aquatic or stream river ecosystems, so fish can't move around like they used to avoid drought or to find refuge habitat.”
That fragmentation, like dams, bridges, or culverts, can also slow recovery after severe drought. And when drought overlaps with other disturbances, the consequences can last even longer.
One of these disturbances are wildfires. Gido said wildfires can send sediment into waterways, damaging fish communities and extending the effects of drought.
“You can have these droughts and then these big wildfires,” he explained, “that then all this sediment flows into the river can obliterate the community, and it takes a long time for those to recover.”
These lasting effects are known as drought legacies.
Gido said they raise difficult questions about where conservation efforts should focus, particularly when restoring an entire river system isn't realistic.
He said conservationists may need different strategies for different systems. This can look like restoring habitat to using hatcheries or off-channel habitats to keep threatened fish populations alive.
“I think it's important as a conservation biologist to understand those differences,” Gido said.
Ultimately, he hopes his research encourages the next generation of scientists to find new approaches to these problems.
“I think we need to take measures, you know, as a society, as biologists,” Gido explained. “Have creative solutions to problems, have well-trained scientists working on the problems.”
Alongside a seminar on drought and native fish conservation, Gido also presented research on removing accumulated sediment from aging reservoirs — another challenge facing water conservation managers.
