DAVIS, Calif., Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Warming in California streams could spell the end of spring-run Chinook salmon in the state by the end of the century, a study says.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, used a computer model of the Butte Creek watershed, taking into account the dams and hydropower installations along the river, combined with a model of the salmon population, and fed in scenarios for climate change out to 2099, a UCD release said Thursday.
In almost all scenarios, the scientists said, the fish died out because streams became too warm for adults to survive the summer to spawn in the fall.
The only option that preserved salmon populations, at least for a few decades, was to reduce the diversions for hydropower generation at the warmest time of the year, they said.
"If we leave the water in the stream at key times of the year, the stream stays cooler and fish can make it through to the fall," Lisa Thompson, director of the UCD Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture said.
The difficulty is that summer is also peak season for energy demand in California, but Thompson said it might be possible to generate more power upstream while holding water for salmon at other locations.
"I swim with these fish, they're magnificent," Thompson said. "We don't want to give up on them."
