On Tuesday 28 September 2021, Herman Wanningen, a Ductch aquatic ecologist, entrepreneur specializing in fish migration and water management and founder of the World Fish Migration Foundation and initiator of Dam Removal Europe and Global Swimways, will give a seminar on dam removal as an ecological restoration measure of rivers which have been negatively impacted by the construction and operation of dams. The presentation will highlight how European river managers, inspired by a growing movement, are getting ready to restore rivers by removing dams.
Herman Wanningen
The seminar starts at 13.15 and will be streamed live over Zoom. Contact Olle Calles (olle.calles@kau.se) to receive the zoom link to this seminar.
The flumes used to study grayling behaviour in the experiment, emptied (left) and filled (right) with water.
In the abstract of the paper the authors write:
“Cost‐effective
implementation of fish‐friendly hydropower flow operation and habitat
restoration measures require an understanding of their effects on
fitness‐related behaviours of stream fish. Here, we investigated how changes in
flow and bottom structure influence the social behaviour of European grayling,
using large experimental flumes (700 L s−1), with and without
added boulders (i.e., restored and unrestored habitat). Grayling increased
their distance to nearest neighbour at the start of flow ramping up and after a
flow peak compared to stable base flow. At the start of ramping up the flow, grayling
made less position changes (movements >1 m) than at stable base flow and
after a flow peak. In the unrestored habitat, the proportion of time grayling
spent actively swimming was lower before a flow peak than it was both at the
start of ramping up the flow and after the peak, an effect not found in the
restored habitat. In addition, we compared two static flows, and habitat
restoration mediated their effect on distance to nearest neighbour. Grayling in
the restored habitat were positioned closer to each other in the low (~10 cm s−1) than in the intermediate static flow (~40 cm s−1), whereas in the unrestored habitat, grayling showed the
opposite pattern. Moreover, grayling reduced their number of position changes
in the intermediate static flow, which was reflected by a reduction in active
swimming. Stomach analysis after the trials revealed that foraging success was
higher in variable than in the stable flow treatment. These results show that
flow magnitude, flow changes and instream structure play important roles in the
behaviour of stream fishes.”
As a member of the European consortium RIBES (River flow regulation, fish Behaviour and Status), the River Ecology and Management research group at Karlstad University invites applicants to three PhD positions on fish migration and passage in regulated rivers. In addition to thethree PhD positions in Karlstad, RIBES also announces 12 more PhD positions in Belgium, Estonia, Germany,Italy and the UK as part of the same network.
To be eligible for one of the PhD positions in Karlstad, candidates cannot have resided in Sweden for12 months or longer in the 3 years immediately before the recruitment date.
On Tuesday 11 September (tomorrow) Christer Nilsson, Professor emeritus at Umeå University, will hold a seminar at Karlstad University titled ”Three decades of river restoration in Sweden: Lessons learned and future challenges”. The seminar will start at 13:15 in room 5F416, everyone is welcome to attend the seminar.
The short film “La Vida se Mueve” (en. “Life is motion”) discusses fish migration, dam passage, and river restoration i Spain. It is available online (with subtitles) here:
The film is produced for the River Duero Basin Authority Read. Read more about the theme at www.cipríber.eu.
The international river restoration conference “Restoring floodplains, habitats and connectivity using mussels and brains” will be held in Lund, Sweden, on 28–30 September, 2016. The organizers write: “Conference objectives are to highlight experiences and results gained from a wide range of river restoration projects focusing on rehabilitation of species of freshwater mussels and fish. Mussels and fish are often used as indicators and flagship species while restoring rivers. But are they any good? If so – why? The first two days will focus on presentations by invited experts and conference participants who want to present their work. The third day includes field visits to Fyleån Creek, Klingavälsån River, both sites re-meandered, and the Hemmestorp Mölla rearing facility. We look forward to seeing you in Lund!”
On Tuesday 11 September (tomorrow) 