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U.S. Department of the InteriorU.S. Geological Survey
Mapping River Habitat at Different Flows in the Big Bend Reach of the Rio Grande
A Project in Support of the Experimental Introduction of the Federally Endangered Rio Grande Silvery Minnow (Hybognathus amarus) into the
Big Bend Reach of the Rio Grande
Bruce MoringSenior BiologistUSGS Texas Water Science CenterAustin, [email protected]
Daniel PearsonGeographer/GIS SpecialistUSGS Texas Water Science CenterAustin, [email protected]
Background
Rio Grande silvery minnow (Hybognathus amarus)
One of seven species in the genus Hybognathus
Federally listed endangered species (1994) Historically found throughout Rio Grande Current range - Cochiti Dam and Elephant
Butte Reservoir in New Mexico ~ 5% of its former range
Experimental Reintroduction (FWS)
Rio Grande in December of 2008 Released approximately 1.4M minnows at
four sites in the Big Bend reach (2010) Contrabando Creek (BBSP), Santa Elena
Canyon (BBNP), Rio Grande Village (BBNP), Stillwell Crossing at Adam’s Ranch (Private)
USGS monitoring
Study Area
Project Overview
1) Identify flows including a seasonal (base) low flow, a within bank high-pulse flow, and an over-bank flow that are important to support various life stages of the minnow
2) Determine the area of inundation and physical characteristics of these habitats over the range of proposed flows
3) Characterize the fish assemblage by mesohabitat type at the low flow and within-bank high-pulse flows
Data Collection
Map and characterize instream habitat (mesohabitat-scale)
Detailed reach map at targeted flows using high-performance GPS receiver
Create spatially enabled database to capture geographic (map), physical habitat, fish assemble
September 2010 – 65cfs Rio Grande @ Adam’s Ranch
Deliverables – FY2012
Project geodatabase Project Webpage
development to include online database and fully developed mapping application (Google API)
USGS Scientific Investigations Report documenting project methods and results
Value of this information?
Rio Grande Silvery Minnow management Compare sites in TX and NM
High-resolution fish occurance data, tagged with high-accuracy GPS
Instream habitat availability/change over time for RGSM
Project-specific data model that can be matured and used at enterprise level
Data Considerations
Complex. Related, but unique… data formats, collection
methods, temporal aspect, hydrologic regime (flows, drought?, impoundments)
Spreadsheets? No, databases! Geographic data married to habitat data, fish
assemblage, depth/velocity
GIS gives us the platform for managing both spatial and tabular information, mobile applications and web mapping
Realities of Biology data
General lack of readily-available digital data resources
Biology data is not commonly shared between scientists, but needed
Biology data assumption – inability to compare project data 1:1 spatially or temporal Methodology differences, sampling strategy,
equipment used
Build a warehouse?
Options limited for efficiently handling data BioTDB (NAWQA-BioData), NWIS, GAP (National),
NBII, State databases
USGS Report – safe, solid archive for project data, not efficient for end user
Long-term management of digital data formats
How to handle historical data requests Data recovery?
Needed?
“Simple”, functional data model could facilitate information sharing Uses geographic extent and scale for foundation Document driven searches
Keywords, Dates, Author, Location
Flexible, intuitive, customer driven design
Metadata heavy Explain details of methodology*
Hard-coded, robust database, NWIS-esque
Questions?
Daniel K. Pearson (GIS Specialist) USGS Texas Water Science Center [email protected]
Texas GIS Projects Web Site:
http://tx.usgs.gov/GIS/
Texas GIS Projects Web Site:
http://tx.usgs.gov/projects/bigbend/
mappingSMhabitat.html
