The effect of housing and urban areas amplified by hydrology/precipitation
Increased impervious surface areas due to expanding urban areas, combined with soil compaction, vegetation removal, and piping leads to more runoff. This additional runoff creates flashy flows and can add increased pollution and sedimentation in streams, thus degrading aquatic habitats. In the Northeast, climate change is predicted to cause more extreme precipitation events which amplify runoff and resulting erosion and pollution. These two forces will degrade habitat and stress freshwater species like. Additionally, the runoff may pick up heat from the impervious surfaces increasing the temperature of the water bodies it flows into (Waite et al., 2019).
Several Regional Species of Greatest Conservation Need (RSGCN) are particularly vulnerable, including Bog Turtle (Glyptemys muhlenbergii), Bridle Shiner (Notropis bifrenatus), Swamp Darter (Etheostoma fusiforme), and Western Pirate Perch (Aphredoderus sayanus gibbosus). All rely on shallow, slow-moving freshwater habitats, making them sensitive to both development and altered hydrology. Habitat fragmentation, road mortality (especially for Bog Turtles), and low genetic diversity (notably for Bridle Shiner) further heighten risks. A few severe habitat-degrading events could imperil entire isolated populations.
Larger scale approaches to reduce the negative effects of urbanization on stream ecosystems could be working towards both protecting core areas of habitat, promoting stormwater control measures that reduce the landscape effects of urban streams, and engaging communities to restore or protect urban streams. At the species level, translocating individuals or populations of at-risk species may be a potential option to maintain viable populations in undisturbed habitat.
Management Solutions
Solution 1: Identify and protect core habitat
The 2023 The Nature Conservancy Conservation Status of Natural Habitats assessed development in watersheds and provided tools and maps for prioritizing land and stream conservation and connectivity through protected areas and reduced disturbance (Anderson et al., 2023).
Solution 2: Stormwater Control Measures
Walsh et al. (2016) developed five principles to develop stormwater control measures (SCMs) that protect stream ecosystems and provide a foundation for managers to coordinate with local governments or other entities to improve stormwater infrastructure. While SCMs often prioritize public health and flood mitigation, the principles in Walsh et al. (2016) focus on the environmental conditions of downstream nonurban catchments. The authors outline how SCMs can help reduce flashy flows and delivery of pollutants to downstream areas by restoring and protecting surrounding areas, striving to achieve pre-development hydrological conditions, and reducing impervious surfaces and untreated runoff.
Solution 3: Engaging communities
Urban communities have a vital interest in stream restoration to increase ecosystem services, aesthetic value, and recreation potential. Importantly, restored urban streams can help reduce negative downstream impacts (Konrad & Booth 2005). Engaging communities and aligning restoration plans with community values is critical for success (Metcalf et al., 2015). For example, social and governance resistance are known barriers to developing new, ecologically focused, stormwater control measures (Walsh et al. 2016). Scoggins et al. (2022) recommends four actions managers can take to effectively engage communities in urban stream restoration projects including actions so mangers can first understand community perspective and then meaningfully collaborate with community members throughout the life of a restoration project (Scoggins et al. 2022). While these guiding principals were developed for urban watersheds, they are generally transferable to other socioecological systems. These engagement points can also serve as opportunities to introduce and educate the community to the relevant climate data and tools needed to fully address threats to RSGCN
Solution 4: Translocation
Translocation could be a tactic to increase genetic diversity in some populations and move individuals from unprotected areas to protected areas that have been evaluated for their future climate suitability using downscaled climate projections. Dresser et al. (2018) recommend translocation for some southern populations of Bog Turtles that were small and isolated, after conducting a genetic survey. While northern populations of Bog Turtle have relatively more protections and may be less imperiled than southern populations, assessing the genetics in the northern population could be a first step to establish baseline data followed by monitoring for inbreeding and bottlenecks to determine if translocation is needed in the future. Thompson et al. (2023) provides guidance for reducing the risk of translocation. Bridle Shiners could also be considered for translocation and Jensen (2012) suggested areas with dense spring vegetation with slow water flow were suitable destination habitats.
Solution 1 corresponds to:
- Terrestrial Wildlife Menu Strategy 8 -Restore, and maintain sources of food, water, and cover as components of habitat.
- Terrestrial Wildlife Menu Strategy 10 -Establish and enhance protected areas of habitat reserves.
- Tribal Adaptation Menu Strategy 4 -Sustain fundamental ecological and cultural functions.
- Tribal Adaptation Menu Strategy 8.4 -Establish protected areas to maintain ecosystem and cultural diversity.
Solution 2 corresponds to:
- Terrestrial Wildlife Menu Strategy 9.5 -Establish or redesign infrastructure to protect habitat from anticipated climate impacts.
- Tribal Adaptation Menu 5.4 - Reduce negative impacts from anthropogenic disturbances.
Solution 3 corresponds to:
- Terrestrial Wildlife Menu Strategy -13.3 Promote community-managed conservation lands.
- Tribal Adaptation Menu Strategy 1.1 -Consult cultural leaders, key community members, and elders.
- Tribal Adaptation Menu Strategy 1.2 -Consider mindful practices of reciprocity.
- Tribal Adaptation Menu Strategy 1.3 -Understand the human and landscape history of the community.
Solution 4 corresponds to:
- Terrestrial Adaptation Menu Strategy 1.9 -Restore genetic diversity in isolated or inbred populations
- Terrestrial Adaptation Menu Strategy 2.1 -Translocate individuals or populations to habitat within the existing range that was formerly occupied and remains suitable
- Tribal Adaptation Menu Strategy 11.2 -Establish or encourage new mixes of local beings and/or bakaan ingoji gaa-ondaadag (Anishinaabemowin word for non-local beings) expected to do well under future conditions to meet future needs.
- Tribal Adaptation Menu Strategy 11.4 -Seek out and share traditional and cultural knowledge of potential new beings from Tribal communities where these beings are native.
References
Adapted from
Staudinger, M.D., A.V. Karmalkar, K. Terwilliger, K. Burgio, A. Lubeck, H. Higgins, T. Rice, T.L. Morelli, A. D'Amato. 2024. A regional synthesis of climate data to inform the 2025 State Wildlife Action Plans in the Northeast U.S. DOI Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center Cooperator Report. 406 p. https://doi.org/10.21429/t352-9q86