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Author Topic: As a Glaicier retreats, a new salmon stream is left behind  (Read 1967 times)

RalphH

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As a Glaicier retreats, a new salmon stream is left behind
« on: April 15, 2023, 05:38:19 PM »


Ecologist Sandy Milner has traveled to Alaska for decades to study the development of streams flowing from melting glaciers

https://www.hatchmag.com/articles/glaciers-retreat-new-streams-salmon/7715692

"Wolf Point Creek... is a relatively new feature on the landscape: Land at its mouth first became ice-free in the 1940s due to the melting and retreat of a glacier. It took shape through the 1970s, fed by a mountain lake that slowly formed as an isolated chunk of glacier ice slowly melted. Wolf Point Creek is special because almost its entire life span — from the first, sparse trickles melting out under the ice edge to a mature stream ecosystem teeming with aquatic life, from tiny midge larvae to small fish, and with willows and alder weaving along its edges — is known in intimate detail, its history painstakingly documented."
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bj23

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Re: As a Glaicier retreats, a new salmon stream is left behind
« Reply #1 on: April 16, 2023, 12:02:52 PM »

Great short term, until the glacier has retreated.
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bigsnag

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Re: As a Glaicier retreats, a new salmon stream is left behind
« Reply #2 on: April 16, 2023, 12:14:56 PM »

Perfect place to experiment whether if hatchery salmonid can sustain themselves on their own.
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RalphH

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Re: As a Glaicier retreats, a new salmon stream is left behind
« Reply #3 on: April 16, 2023, 04:56:55 PM »

what I found interesting was that it took a relatively short time from when the glacier retreated from the coast until a stream was established and salmon colonized it. I recall from I studied archaeology that the evidence was that the was that once the last 'ice age' ended the rivers that reemerged from the ice were recolonized and fish became abundant within a very short period, in geologic terms. Almost literally the salmon were there as soon as the ice was gone.

There could be hundreds and even thousands of miles of streams and rivers that emerge in valleys along the coast as glaciers retreat:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/glaciers-salmon-habitat-1.6276784

Many of our existing glacier rivers are not that fertile and less ice melt could mean higher productivity in some parts of those streams.

Of course salmon need more than just spawning gravel and stream habitat. There is a big question as to how salmon friendly are coastal waters will be if climate change progresses at the clip some of some forecasts.
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"The hate of men will pass and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people!" ...Charlie Chaplin, from his film The Great Dictator.