The U.S. boasts more than 4 million miles of rivers, peppered with laws and regulations to protect access to drinking water and essential habitat for fish and wildlife. But in the first comprehensive review of river protection, research co-led by the 天美影视传媒 shows that the existing regulations account for less than 20% of total river length and vary widely by region.

Freshwater conservation strategies have historically emphasized protections against land use and development on public lands, including National Wildlife Refuges, Wilderness Areas and National Forests. However, protection measures that are specific to lakes, rivers and wetlands are much less common.

Most of the protection afforded to rivers comes from land-based measures, but the growing global consensus is that this isn鈥檛 enough. Freshwater ecosystems are losing biodiversity faster than anywhere else. To improve stewardship, researchers first need to map the existing protections and attempt to gauge their benefits.

鈥淲e examined the patchwork of different aquatic and terrestrial protection measures that seek to support river resilience to better understand where we are doing well and where there is room for improvement,鈥� said , a UW professor of aquatic and fishery sciences.

Olden co-led this study with and . They published the results Jan. 9 in an in Nature Sustainability, alongside a on the topic.

Rivers supply clean drinking water and power to millions of Americans. They provide habitat for fish, water for thirsty crops, and create transportation networks for people, goods and animals. But the nature of rivers makes them harder to protect. They cross borders, traverse ecological zones and snake between public and private lands.

Waterways are now represented in some major conservation initiatives, such as the 鈥� an effort to protect 30% of Earth鈥檚 land and ocean by 2030 鈥� but that wasn鈥檛 always the case.

鈥淭hreats to fresh waters often originate outside the bounds of protected land areas,鈥� Olden said. 鈥淪o unfortunately no matter how much attention you give an individual stretch of river, it is only as protected as its headwaters.鈥�

Because the mechanism of protection varies depending on the policy or management practice, the researchers developed a river protection index to compare river segments based on water quantity, quality, connectivity, habitat and biodiversity 鈥� key ecological attributes supporting freshwater resilience. They categorized segments by protection level to identify gaps and prioritize areas in need of protection.

鈥淲e layered local, state and federal protection mechanisms onto the river network to reveal where and how we seek to protect America鈥檚 rivers,鈥� Olden said.

The study reported that nearly two-thirds of rivers in the U.S. are unprotected. Just over 19% of total river length in the entire U.S., and 11% in the contiguous U.S., is protected at a level deemed adequate to safeguard the health of river ecosystems. . Protections favor high elevation and remote areas, as well as public lands. Low-elevation headwaters and large swaths of the Midwest and South are underprotected.

River-specific protection efforts remain scarce. The 鈥� a seminal freshwater protection measure passed in 1972 鈥斕� protects just 2.7% of total river length. Habitat bulwarks for endangered species protect 1.3% and approximately 2% receive protection from river-specific designations, such as .

Land-based regulations, by comparison, apply to a much larger chunk of the total. Federal Wilderness Area designations apply to 6.3% of total river length and river and floodplain protections encompass 14.2% of total river length.

The study also highlighted the potential value of investing in watershed management programs.

鈥淲orking to ensure that protected rivers also have protected upstream watersheds supports reliable access to clean water that doesn鈥檛 need treatment, which can be expensive, before it hits the faucets of American households,鈥� Olden said.

Beefing up protections doesn鈥檛 mean cutting off access to rivers, either.

鈥淲e can use regulatory action to support equitable access to the numerous benefits rivers provide human society,鈥� Olden said. 鈥淧rotected rivers support recreation, freshwater biodiversity and cultural value. It鈥檚 a win-win-win.鈥�

For more information, contact Olden at olden@uw.edu.听

Additional co-authors include , and of Conservation Science Partners; and and of American Rivers.

This study was funded by American Rivers.

The 天美影视传媒 is proud to announce that 56 faculty and researchers who completed their work while at UW have been named on the list from Clarivate.

The annual list identifies researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade. Their names are drawn from the publications that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the .

Highly Cited Researchers demonstrate significant and broad influence in their fields of research. The total list includes 7,131 awards from more than 1,300 institutions in 60 countries and regions. This small fraction of the global researcher population contributes disproportionately to extending the frontiers of knowledge and contributing to innovations that make the world healthier, more sustainable and which drive societal impact, according to Clarivate.

The that determines the 鈥渨ho鈥檚 who鈥� of influential researchers is drawn from data and analysis performed by bibliometric experts and data scientists at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate.

The list below includes faculty and researchers whose primary affiliation is with the UW, Fred Hutch Cancer Center, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Please note: Some of the people on the list are no longer with the UW and their current affiliation is noted. This list reflects initial data from Clarivate and may be updated.

Ivan Anishchenko (Vilya)

David Baker

William A. Banks

Gregory N. Bratman

Steven L. Brunton

Guozhong Cao

Ting Cao

Lauren Carter (Gates Medical Research Institute)

Helen Chu

David H. Cobden

Katharine H. D. Crawford

Riza M. Daza

Frank DiMaio

Kristie L. Ebi

Evan E. Eichler

Emmanuela Gakidou

David Ginger

Raphael Gottardo (CHUV)

Alexander L. Greninger

Simon I. Hay

Andrew Hill (Infinimmune)

Eric Huang

Michael C. Jensen (BrainChild)

Neil P.听 King

C. Dirk Keene

J. Nathan Kutz

Eric H. Larson

Aaron Lyon

Michael J. MacCoss

Brendan MacLean

C. M. Marcus

Julian D. Marshall

Ali Mokdad

Thomas J. Montine (Stanford)

Mohsen Naghavi

Marian L. Neuhouser

Julian D. Olden

Robert W. Palmatier

David Pigott

Hannah A. Pliner (Bristol Myers Squibb)

Ganesh Raghu

Stanley Riddell

Andrea Schietinger (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)

Jay Shendure

M. Alejandra Tortorici

Troy R. Torgerson (Allen Institute)

Cole Trapnell

Katherine R. Tuttle

David Veesler

Theo Vos

Alexandra C. Walls (BioNTech SE)

Bryan J. Weiner

Di Xiao

Jie Xiao

Xiaodong Xu

Jihui Yang

Bob Wilbur thought he鈥檇 found a retirement home that would be a place of peace. Nestled against Admiralty Bay on the western edge of Whidbey Island, the three-story house is surrounded by trees and shoreline. It offers the kind of quiet that only an island can provide. Except when the Growlers fly.听

As often as four days a week, Boeing EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft based at the nearby Naval Air Station Whidbey Island fly loops overhead as pilots practice touch-and-go landings. The noise is immense, around the level of a loud rock concert. 鈥淚t interrupts your day,鈥� Wilbur said. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e unable to have a pleasant evening at home. You can鈥檛 communicate. You constantly try to organize your day around being gone when the jets are flying.鈥�听

New research from the 天美影视传媒 shows that the noise isn鈥檛 just disruptive 鈥� it presents a substantial risk to public health. in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, an analysis of the Navy鈥檚 own acoustic monitoring data found that more than 74,000 people are exposed to noise levels with adverse health effects.听听

“Military aircraft noise is substantially more intense and disturbing than commercial jet noise,鈥� said lead author , a graduate student in the UW College of the Environment. 鈥淣oise exposure has many downstream effects beyond just annoyance and stress 鈥� high levels of sleep disturbance, hearing impairment, increased risk of cardiovascular disease 鈥� these have real impacts on human health and quality of life. We also found that several schools in the area are exposed to levels that have been shown to put children at risk of delayed learning.鈥�

Guided by conversations with community members and local advocacy groups, researchers analyzed four weeks of acoustic and flight operations data , in addition to prior-year data collected by a private acoustics company and the National Park Service. Researchers then mapped noise exposure across the region to estimate how much noise specific communities were exposed to in an average year.听

Researchers estimated that two-thirds of Island County residents, including everyone in the cities of Oak Harbor and Coupeville, were exposed to potentially harmful levels of noise, as was 85% of the population of the Swinomish Indian Reservation. 听

In total, an estimated 74,316 people were exposed to average noise levels that posed a risk of annoyance, 41,089 of whom were exposed to nighttime noise levels associated with adverse effects on sleep. Another 8,059 people 鈥� most of whom lived within fairly close proximity to aircraft landing strips 鈥� were exposed to noise levels that can pose a risk of hearing impairment over time.听

鈥淥ur bodies produce a lot of stress hormone response to noise in general, it doesn鈥檛 matter what kind of noise it is. But particularly if it鈥檚 this repeated acute noise, you might expect that stress hormone response to be exacerbated,鈥� said co-author , a UW professor of environmental and occupational health sciences. 鈥淲hat was really interesting was that we鈥檙e reaching noise exposure levels that are actually harmful for hearing. Usually I only think of hearing in the context of working in factories or other really, really loud occupational settings. But here, we鈥檙e reaching those levels for the community.鈥�听听

Taken as a whole, the potential harms can be quite serious, Seto said. 鈥淚magine people trying to sleep, or children in school trying to understand their teachers and you鈥檝e got these jets flying.鈥�听

Every monitoring station on Whidbey Island measured noise events in excess of 100 decibels when jets were flying. In some instances, noise levels were 鈥渙ff the charts鈥� 鈥� exceeding the limits of models used to predict the health effects of noise exposure around the world. 听

鈥淲e found it striking that Growler noise exceeds the scientific community鈥檚 current understanding of the potential health outcomes,鈥� said co-author , a UW professor of aquatic and fishery sciences. 鈥淔or this reason, our estimates of health impacts are conservative.鈥�听

The noise has been the subject of community disputes and legal controversy since 2013, when the U.S. Navy moved more Growler jets onto Whidbey Island and increased the number of flights to more than 110,000 per year. Bob Wilbur is a member and the current chair of Citizens of Ebey鈥檚 Reserve, a community group that has sued the Navy over the jet noise and increased flight operations. The group also helped facilitate the UW study, and Wilbur is a co-author.听听

Like other military aircraft, the Growlers鈥� noise differs significantly from commercial jets 鈥� louder and deeper, the kind of sound that people feel before they hear.听听

“It鈥檚 the intensity, the intermittent nature of the noise, and the low-frequency energy specifically,鈥� Jacuzzi said. 鈥淭hose three things are very different than what you experience from normal commercial flights, which are predictable and high in altitude. When Growlers fly over a home, they emit a rumbling noise that penetrates windows and shakes walls.鈥澨�听

While commercial jet noise has been the subject of extensive study, research into military aircraft noise is relatively rare. Previous UW-led research found that military flights were the largest cause of noise pollution on the Olympic Peninsula. While discussing that study, Whidbey residents complained that the noise disturbed their sleep and interfered with students鈥� schoolwork, which prompted this new line of inquiry. While conducting this study, researchers worked closely with community members and advocacy groups and held multiple webinars to share results and shape future work.听听

鈥淥ur research was motivated by the growing chorus of complaints by Washingtonians across multiple counties,鈥� Olden said. 鈥淲e believe the science speaks for itself. It鈥檚 no longer a question of whether noise impacts people, but how, where and how much these effects are experienced.鈥�听

Other authors are Lauren Kuehne of Omfishient Consulting, and Anne Harvey and Christine Hurley of Sound Defense Alliance. This research was funded by the UW Population Health Initiative.

For more information, contact Jacuzzi at gioj@uw.edu.听

The 天美影视传媒 is proud to announce that 47 faculty and researchers who completed their work while at UW have been named on the annual list from Clarivate.

The highly anticipated annual list identifies researchers who demonstrated significant influence in their chosen field or fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade. Their names are drawn from the publications that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and publication year in the Web of Science citation index.

The list of faculty and researchers who were acknowledged for their work while at UW includes:

• David Baker
• Frank DiMaio
• William Sheffler
• Dr. Jay Shendure
• Cole Trapnell
• David Veesler
• Alexandra C. Walls*
• Philip Mease
• Dr. Christopher J. L. Murray
• Dr. Ganesh Raghu
• Dr. Stanley Riddell
• Alejandra Tortorici
• Dr. William A. Banks
• Gregory N. Bratman
• Steven L. Brunton
• Guozhong Cao
• William A. Catterall
• David H. Cobden
• Riza M. Daza
• Dr. E. Patchen Dellinger
• Dr. Janet A. Englund
• E. Erskine
• Michael Gale Jr.
• Raphael Gottardo
• Celestia S. Higano
• Neil P. King
• Ali Mokdad
• William S. Noble
• Julian D. Olden
• L. Patrick
• David L. Smith
• Dr. Piper Meigs Treuting
• Spencer A. Wood
• Jesse R. Zaneveld
• Ning Zheng
• Dr. Hans D. Ochs
• Simon I. Hay
• Evan E. Eichler
• Deborah A. Nickerson**
• John A. Stamatoyannopoulos***
• Dr. Thomas J. Montine****
• Di Xiao
• Xiaodong Xu
• Bryan J. Weiner
• Mohsen Naghavi
• Theo Vos
• David M. Pigott

The that determines the 鈥渨ho鈥檚 who鈥� of influential researchers draws on the data and analysis performed by bibliometric experts and data scientists at the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate. It also uses the tallies to identify the countries and research institutions where these scientific elite are based. This year Clarivate partnered with Retraction Watch and extended the qualitative analysis of the Highly Cited Researchers list, addressing increasing concerns over potential misconduct.

The full 2022 Highly Cited Researchers list and executive summary can be found online .

* now is at BioNTech SE.

** on Dec. 24, 2021.

*** now is at Altius.

**** now is at Stanford University.

, a professor in the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, has been named a 2022 fellow of the Ecological Society of America. Fellows are elected for life, and the honor recognizes scientists who advance or apply ecological knowledge in academics, government, nonprofits and the broader society.

Olden studies the structure and function of freshwater ecosystems in response to environmental change. Olden seeks to integrate science-based approaches with on-the-ground management decisions, and he actively engages in science communication and community science efforts.

, an assistant professor in the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, has been named a 2022 early career fellow, an honor for researchers who are within eight years of completing their doctoral training.

Harvey鈥檚 research focuses on understanding forest disturbances 鈥� fires and insect outbreaks 鈥� and how forests are shaped by these disturbances, along with climate. For the last decade, Harvey has conducted research on the disturbance ecology of forests in the Pacific Northwest, the Rockies and coastal California.

“I’m delighted to see these two exceptional faculty recognized by the ESA,” said Maya Tolstoy, Maggie Walker Dean of the UW College of the Environment. “Julian and Brian each bring innovative approaches to research, teaching and community engagement that are outstanding within their fields, and further the essential work of understanding human impacts on our planet’s ecological processes.”

According to the Ecological Society of America鈥檚 April 12 , Olden was elected for “pushing the frontiers of invasion ecology and deepening the understanding of freshwater sustainability through environmental flows management, for tireless science communication and for his dedication to training the next generation of freshwater ecologists and conservation biologists.”

Harvey was elected for “deepening understanding of the effects of natural disturbances, especially fire and insect outbreaks, on resilience and management of forests in the U.S. West; for excellence in science communication and outreach; and for outstanding teaching and mentoring at all levels from undergraduate to advanced graduate.”

The development of small hydropower dams is widespread throughout Brazil and elsewhere in the world, vastly overshadowing large hydropower projects. The proliferation of these smaller dams is a response to growing energy and security needs. Their expansion, however, threatens many of the remaining free-flowing rivers and biodiverse tropical regions of the world鈥� interrupting the migrations of freshwater fishes, on which millions of peoples鈥� livelihoods depend.

A new 天美影视传媒 published Jan. 11 in Nature Sustainability quantifies these tradeoffs between hydroelectric generation capacity and the impacts on river connectivity for thousands of current and projected future dams across Brazil. The findings confirm that small hydropower plants are far more responsible for river fragmentation than their larger counterparts due to their prevalence and distribution.听

鈥淭he cumulative impacts of many small hydropower dams have long been ignored; instead, focus has been on them in isolation, resulting in claims that their impacts are small,鈥� said co-author , a UW professor of aquatic and fishery sciences.听

This study was led by , a recent doctoral graduate in the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences who is now a postdoctoral researcher at Florida International University.

Dams constrain the movement of migratory fish along river networks and isolate critical habitats, such as spawning and feeding grounds, which may contribute to local extinctions, population declines and collapses of fishery stocks. This makes migratory fish species some of the most vulnerable organisms to hydropower development in the tropics.听

The authors emphasize that many of the migratory fish species impacted by fragmentation are of high ecological and socioeconomic importance, and that some communities may feel the impacts more than others. For example, some small hydropower dams have been linked to the decline of fish stocks that are relied on heavily by Brazil鈥檚 Indigenous groups, because fish are no longer reliably migrating through their historic range.听

Another concern cited by the authors is that small hydropower dams greatly outnumber large hydropower dams, but their combined energy output is much less. In Brazil, small hydropower plants only account for only 7% of total generation capacity even though they represent more than 85% of hydropower plants in the country.听

The collective impacts of Brazil鈥檚 rapidly growing small hydropower development on river fragmentation and migratory fish species is extensive, and shows no signs of lessening as the planned construction of new dams continue, the study explains. It is projected that river fragmentation will increase by 21% in the future, and two-thirds of the 191 migratory species assessed in the study occupy river basins that will experience greater connectivity losses. The authors advocate for improved strategic planning of hydropower development with environmentally informed criteria to minimize the potential adverse ecological effects.

鈥淲e were motivated by the hope that society could be smarter about new dam constructions in the future,鈥� said Olden. 鈥淭he study demonstrates that with careful planning, Brazil can meet future energy production needs with only modest impacts on river fragmentation and migratory fishes.鈥�

This research was funded by a H. Mason Keeler Endowed Professorship from the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences, the CNPq/Science Without Borders Fellowship, the Rufford Foundation and National Geographic Society. Mathis Messager, who recently earned a master鈥檚 at the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and is now at McGill University, is also a co-author.

For more information, contact Olden, at olden@uw.edu.

An area in the Olympic Peninsula鈥檚 Hoh Rain Forest in Washington state for years held the as one of the quietest places in the world. Deep within the diverse, lush, rainy landscape the sounds of human disturbance were noticeably absent.

But in recent years, the U.S. Navy switched to a more powerful aircraft and increased training flights from its nearby base on Whidbey Island, contributing to more noise pollution on the peninsula 鈥� and notably over what used to be among the quietest places in the continental U.S. While local residents and visitors have noticed more aircraft noise, no comprehensive analysis has been done to measure the amount of noise disturbance, or the impact it has on people and wildlife.

Now, as the Navy is set to implement in flight activities, a 天美影视传媒 provides the first look at how much noise pollution is impacting the Olympic Peninsula. The paper found that aircraft were audible across a large swath of the peninsula at least 20% of weekday hours, or for about one hour during a six-hour period. About 88% of all audible aircraft in the pre-pandemic study were military planes.

鈥淚 think there is a huge gap between what the Navy is telling people 鈥� that its aircraft are not substantially louder and operations haven鈥檛 changed 鈥� and what people are noticing on the ground,鈥� said lead author , who completed the work as a research scientist at the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and is now an independent consultant. 鈥淥ur project was designed to try and measure noise in the ways that reflect what people are actually experiencing.鈥�

The was published Nov. 25 in the journal Northwest Science.

The Navy is set to implement a 62% increase in airborne electronic warfare and 13% increase in air-to-air combat training over the Olympic Peninsula, a place that is historically, culturally and ecologically significant. Eight American Indian tribes call the peninsula home, while Olympic National Park receives more than 3 million visitors a year and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. More than two dozen animal species are found only on the peninsula, and multiple species are listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act.

鈥淭he Olympic Peninsula is a renowned hotspot for wildlife, home for people of many different cultures and a playground for outdoor enthusiasts,鈥� said co-author , professor at the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

The researchers chose three primary sites on the Olympic Peninsula to monitor the soundscape during four seasonal periods from June 2017 to May 2018. Two sites, at Third Beach and Hoh Watershed, were near the coast, while the third site was inland on the Hoh River Trail. They placed recorders at each site to capture sound continuously for 10 days at time, then recruited and trained volunteers to help process the nearly 3,000 hours of recorded audio.

鈥淭his data is very accessible 鈥� you can hear and see it, and it鈥檚 not rocket science,鈥� Kuehne said. 鈥淚 wanted people to feel like they could really own the process of analyzing it.鈥�

From their analysis, the researchers identified nearly 5,800 flight events across all monitoring locations and periods. Of these, 88% were military aircraft, 6% were propeller planes, 5% were commercial airplanes and less than 1% were helicopters. Three-quarters of all recorded military aircraft noise occurred between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays. Most of the military aircraft were , or Boeing EA-18G jets that are used for electronic warfare 鈥� drills that resemble 鈥渉ide and seek鈥� with a target.

The researchers found that most of the aircraft noise was intermittent, detectible across all the sites that were monitored simultaneously, and followed no set pattern. The noise mostly registered between 45 and 60 decibels, which is comparable to the air traffic sounds in Seattle, Kuehne said. Occasionally, the sound level would hit 80 decibels or more, which is akin to the persistent noise when walking under Seattle鈥檚 former waterfront viaduct.

Audio interactive by Rebecca Gourley/天美影视传媒

Conversations with local residents also revealed a majority who notice the low-level jet noise, the researchers said. The chronic and unpredictable nature of the noise is especially tiresome for residents, and some report difficulty sleeping, learning in school and even interference with hearing aids.

Previous research has shown that loudness is only one aspect of how sound can impact human health. Studies have found that the duration of noise, unpredictable patterns and the inability to control exposure all contribute to stress, annoyance, sleep disturbance and interference with learning.

Noise impacts on wildlife are less studied, but some research has shown it can prompt physiological stress and impact animals鈥� ability to reproduce successfully. Noise can also interfere with how animals communicate and find prey.

鈥淭he deafening sound of anthropogenic noise not only threatens wildlife but may also deter people from visiting in the future,鈥� Olden said. 鈥淲hy travel to the Olympic Peninsula to only experience noise comparable to Seattle?鈥�

The researchers hope these results will prompt follow-up assessments of how chronic aircraft noise impacts residents on the peninsula. They also hope the Navy will publicly acknowledge the extent of its noise pollution and consider changing its operations near the peninsula.

鈥淢y wildest-dream scenario is that this would allow the Navy to take seriously people鈥檚 requests that they move at least some of the training elsewhere, to other military operations areas,鈥� Kuehne said.

This research was funded by The Suquamish Foundation, the One Square Inch of Silence Foundation and the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

For more information, contact听Kuehne at lauren.kuehne@gmail.com and Olden at olden@uw.edu.

More images are available to download .

A cooler full of fish might not be the only thing anglers bring back from a trip to the lake. Unknowingly, they may also be transporting small aquatic 鈥渉itchhikers鈥� that attach themselves to boats, motors 鈥� and even fishing gear 鈥曁� when moving between bodies of water.

Considerable research shows that aquatic invasive species can completely transform ecosystems by introducing disease, out-competing and eating native species, altering food webs, changing physical habitat, devastating water-delivery systems and damaging economies. Furthermore, once established, eradication of nuisance species is near impossible, and management can be extremely difficult and costly.

Although preventative measures have been enacted to reduce their introduction and spread, such as mandatory watercraft inspections, educational programs and even dogs trained in sniffing out invasive species, these aquatic stowaways still manage to find their way into new water bodies around the country.

One of the many challenges is identifying how these species spread through human movement. A new 天美影视传媒 study uses passive data from a fishing technology company to model the movement of anglers and predict where aquatic invasives may be spreading. The were published Sept. 2 in the journal NeoBiota.听

鈥淔ocusing on anglers allows us to look at a population that uses a wide range of gear on the water; therefore, they have the potential to move a very wide range of species,鈥� said Rachel Fricke, a graduate student at the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. Fricke鈥檚 research on invasive species is a continuation of her undergraduate capstone project which she also completed at the school.

The researchers used data provided by ReelSonar, the Seattle-based developer of the pocket-sized fish finder . The iBobber syncs with an angler鈥檚 smart device and collects multiple pertinent data points, including fishing location. To date, over five million locations have been recorded from around the world.

“In the past, ecologists have done an incredible job extracting big datasets from the web without necessarily working with the organizations who collected the data in the first place,鈥� said co-author , a professor of aquatic and fishery science. 鈥淭his is to be expected, but I believe that real creativity in the future will come from more authentic collaborations where both ideas and products are co-generated.”

Previous studies relied on optional online forms, requiring anglers to log fishing trips from each location they visited. With ReelSonar鈥檚 passive data, these points are generated automatically, offering researchers an exciting opportunity to further understand where people are moving and when.

The authors specifically looked at location data in the United States and narrowed it down to identify individual trips made by anglers. By quantifying geographic patterns of fishing activities and assessing how these patterns change seasonally, the authors explored angler behavior (fishing frequency and distance traveled) between sites.

鈥淲e were predominantly interested in where people were fishing and the amount of time between their trips to different lakes,鈥� said Fricke. 鈥淭he length of time determines the types of species anglers unintentionally move, as each species has very different survival rates out of the water.鈥�

The authors were also interested in the routes people were using to travel between fishing locations.

What they found was the vast majority of road distances traveled are over small spatial scales. Most anglers are staying near urban areas, but fishing multiple different lakes or rivers in a small radius over a short amount of time. The authors then focused on 鈥渋nvasion hubs,鈥� water bodies that have many linkages via human movement to other nearby water bodies. The timeframe of these movements, which was mostly two days or fewer, fell well within the out-of-water survival threshold for the six invasive species identified in the study.

鈥淏oiled down, people are moving a lot and they’re moving quickly from one place to the听next, which has the potential to move a number of different invasive species,鈥� said Fricke. 鈥淚 don’t think we need to change the preventative measures that we use in light of this data, but it does enable us to better locate those preventative measures in space and time.鈥�

Identifying highly trafficked roads near invasion hubs can be valuable from a management perspective and can help influence where roadside inspection stations and educational signage are placed.听

鈥淚f we see points in these data where invasion hubs exist and where resources are not being allocated, this gives managers the opportunity to identify and implement required boat cleaning and boat inspection stations in those locations,鈥� said Fricke. 鈥淭his kind of data offers a ripe opportunity to reassess where we’re enacting preventative measures and to be more strategic about where we do that.鈥�

Other co-authors are Spencer Wood and Dustin Martin of ReelSonar.听This research was funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Edward Allen Power, W.F. Thompson and Mary Gates Endowment scholarships.

Just over one-third of the world鈥檚 246 longest rivers remain free-flowing, according to a new published May 8 in Nature. Dams and reservoirs are drastically reducing the diverse benefits that healthy rivers provide to people and nature across the globe.

A team of 34 international researchers from McGill University, World Wildlife Fund, the 天美影视传媒 and other institutions assessed the connectivity status of 12 million kilometers of rivers worldwide, providing the first-ever global assessment of the location and extent of the planet鈥檚 remaining free-flowing rivers.

Among other findings, the researchers determined that only 21 of the world’s 91 rivers longer than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) that originally flowed to the ocean still retain a direct connection from source to sea. The planet鈥檚 remaining free-flowing rivers are largely restricted to remote regions of the Arctic, the Amazon Basin and the Congo Basin.

鈥淭he world鈥檚 rivers form an intricate network with vital links to land, groundwater, and the atmosphere,鈥欌�� said lead author of McGill鈥檚 Department of Geography. “Free-flowing rivers are important for humans and the environment alike, yet economic development around the world is making them increasingly rare. Using satellite imagery and other data, our study examines the extent of these rivers in more detail than ever before.鈥�

Dams and reservoirs are the leading contributors to connectivity loss in global rivers. The study estimates there are around 60,000 large dams worldwide, and more than 3,700 hydropower dams are currently planned or under construction. They are often planned and built at the individual project level, making it difficult to assess their real impacts across an entire basin or region.

鈥淥ur findings are quite sobering 鈥� ongoing dam construction will continue to dwindle the number of remaining free-flowing rivers,鈥� said co-author , a professor at the UW School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences. 鈥淏ut, optimistically, the removal of aging and obsolete dams can help reverse this course.鈥�

Healthy rivers support freshwater fish stocks that improve food security for hundreds of millions of people, deliver sediment that keeps deltas above rising seas, mitigate the impact of extreme floods and droughts, prevent loss of infrastructure and fields to erosion and support a wealth of biodiversity. Disrupting rivers鈥� connectivity often diminishes or even eliminates these critical ecosystem services.

鈥淪cience clearly points to the importance of habitat connectivity to support healthy populations of Pacific salmon,鈥� Olden said. 鈥淭he findings of our study put the challenges facing the Columbia River Basin and many Puget Sound rivers into a global context.”

Protecting remaining free-flowing rivers is also crucial to saving biodiversity in freshwater systems. Recent analysis of 16,704 populations of wildlife globally showed that populations of freshwater species experienced the most pronounced decline of all vertebrates over the past half century, falling on average 83 percent since 1970.

The study also notes that climate change will further threaten the health of rivers worldwide. Rising temperatures are already impacting flow patterns, water quality and biodiversity. Meanwhile, as countries around the world shift to low-carbon economies, hydropower planning and development is accelerating, adding urgency to the need to develop energy systems that minimize overall environmental and social impact.

鈥淲hile hydropower inevitably has a role to play in the renewable energy landscape, countries should also consider other renewable options,鈥� said , lead freshwater scientist at World Wildlife Fund. 鈥淲ell-planned wind and solar energy can have less detrimental impacts on rivers and the communities, cities, and biodiversity that rely on them.鈥�

The international community is committed to protect and restore rivers under , which requires countries to track the extent and condition of water-related ecosystems. This study delivers methods and data necessary for countries to maintain and restore free-flowing rivers around the world.

See the for a full list of co-authors and institutions.

This study was funded by World Wildlife Fund, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and McGill University.

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For more information, contact Olden at olden@uw.edu. To reach authors at McGill University or World Wildlife Fund, contact Brooke Hirsheimer at brooke.hirsheimer@wwfus.org or 202-495-4759.

This has been adapted from a World Wildlife Fund .

Hydropower dams may conjure images of the massive Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state or the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei, China 鈥� the world’s largest electricity-generating facility.

But not all dams are the stuff of documentaries. Tens of thousands of smaller hydroelectric dams exist around the world, and all indications suggest that the number could substantially increase in the future. These structures are small enough to avoid the many regulations large dams face, and are built more quickly and in much higher densities. As streams, rivers and watersheds absorb more small dams, however, surprisingly few scientific studies have considered their environmental impact, and policies or regulations are lacking or largely inconsistent.

天美影视传媒 researchers have published the of small hydropower dams around the world 鈥� including their potential for growth 鈥� and highlight the incredibly variability in how dams of varying sizes are categorized, regulated and studied. Their paper, the first to provide a global synthesis of the science and policy of small hydropower, appears this month in the journal .

“As we started exploring this topic of small hydropower development, we realized we’re facing a proliferation of this kind of facility, but we don’t know exactly how their environmental impacts scale up in a watershed,” said lead author , a UW doctoral student in the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences.

“We have identified some important gaps in policy and science that should be filled to better manage small hydropower dams and to have science that really informs policy.”

Dams, big or small, have the potential to change a river’s water flow, temperature, sediment, and ultimately the patterns in plant and animal diversity. These factors have been long-studied for large dams, yet have been largely ignored for small dams 鈥� especially considering the potential cumulative effects of many small dams in a single river system.

Their research reports that nearly 83,000 small hydropower plants are operating or are under construction in 150 countries. For every large hydroelectric dam, 10 small dams exist. If all hydropower capacity were to be developed, the study estimates that this number could more than triple.

Small hydropower can take many different forms. Some small dams are built to store water in reservoirs and then release water downstream, while others divert water away from rivers into powerhouses; in all cases water is used to turn turbines and create electricity.

One of the challenges the researchers faced in compiling these numbers is that countries define “small” hydropower plants differently. As such, there is no international standard with which to categorize and compare dams. Moreover, while the modifier “small” is assumed to equate with few environmental impacts, this is a largely untested notion.

Additionally, countries that do classify small hydropower dams do so based on only their energy capacity and consequently ignore other factors during the licensing decision that might contribute to environmental impacts. In Brazil, for example, there are cases of small hydropower dams producing the same amount of power, but varying greatly in the sizes of reservoirs behind them. This kind of discrepancy happens because most classifications ignore measurements of a dam’s physical footprint, height or whether it has a reservoir behind it.

“It was surprisingly difficult to find scientific articles that have rigorously quantified the individual and cumulative impacts of small hydropower. This is a critical research frontier for the future,” said , senior author and UW professor of aquatic and fishery sciences.

“Individually, large hydropower dams will always cause greater environmental impacts, but with rapid growth of the small hydropower sector, our rivers might just suffer from many small cuts.”

It was not too long ago that the world turned to developing small hydropower plants. The trend toward small dams began in Europe in the mid-1980s and has grown rapidly in recent decades. Small dams are ideal for rural areas because they don’t have to be connected to the electric grid to power homes and businesses. As a result, many private landowners and corporations can leverage easier environmental permitting to build small hydropower dams for a fraction of the time and cost of large dams.

The researchers say more research is needed to understand the cumulative effects of many small dams on the landscape, especially given the rapid pace of development. But in the meantime, they advocate for a standard definition of “small” dams that include more than just generation capacity so that regulations and policies can be applied more rigorously.

“I think one of the most important results of this paper is to show that the development of the small hydropower sector is actually happening in many regions of the world,” Couto said. “There is a proliferation of small dams and not much known about how multiple dams affect watersheds as a whole, so that’s where science has a key role to play.”

The researchers will contribute to that work this spring when they start to study the ecological effects of multiple small hydropower dams in southern Brazil.

This research was funded by the H. Mason Keeler Endowed Professorship and CNPq ().

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For more information, contact Couto at coutot@uw.edu听and Olden at olden@uw.edu.