Warming water temperature associated with climate change is a salient threat to cold-adapted fishes. A critical challenge for conservation is to identify factors that buffer the effects of stressfully high temperatures so that freshwater fisheries are more resilient to warming. Watersheds that are naturally warm yet maintain coldwater fisheries provide critical insights about what types of river features improve coldwater fish resilience to climate change and how managers can restore and protect these important features.

Cool water temperatures associated with groundwater upwelling in freshwater systems is often the focus of climate-related fisheries research, but attributes of freshwater habitats other than cool temperatures may be important to dampening the effects of climate change. Our preliminary work suggests high dissolved oxygen may play a role in dampening the effects of lethal water temperatures for juvenile salmonids. The objective of this project is to characterize the spatial and temporal pattern of oxygen in a low gradient river with a large migratory salmonid to inform large scale restoration projects in addition to the reintroduction of anadromous salmon (salmon that spend most of their lives in saltwater and return to freshwater to spawn) in the Upper Klamath Basin.

This project will be conducted under a collaboration between Oregon State University, The Klamath Tribes, the Oregon Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and the research will produce a dissolved oxygen map of the Sprague River where managers can identify specific impaired stream segments to target restoration to improve water quality. In addition, river segments with high dissolved oxygen can be studied to guide restoration in poor river segments. This map will be available publicly and can serve as a restoration tool to the many agencies implementing future restoration activities in Upper Klamath Basin.