Oral Presentation Society for Freshwater Science 2026 Annual Meeting

Restoration in riverscapes: using spatial food-web modelling to inform restoration planning (135581)

Holly Harris 1 , Ryan Bellmore 2 , Joe Benjamin 3 , Aimee H. Fullerton 4 , Casey Justice 5 , Matt Kaylor 5 , Joe Lemanski 6 , Les Naylor 7 , Adam Price 8 , Gabriel Rossi 9 , Brian Staab 8 , Sean Welch 10 , Michael Wisdom 8
  1. Juneau Forestry Sciences Lab, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Juneau, Alaska, United States
  2. Pacific Northwest Research Station, Juneau, -, United States
  3. Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, USGS, Boise, Idaho, United States
  4. Northwest Fisheries Science Center, NOOA, Seattle, Washington , United States
  5. Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fisheries Commission , Portland, Oregon, United States
  6. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Salem, Oregon
  7. Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation , La Grande, Oregon
  8. Pacific Northwest Research Station, USFS, Portland, Oregon
  9. University of California at Berkley, Berkley, California
  10. Bonneville Power Administration, Portland, Oregon

River networks comprise spatially-structured food webs across headwaters, mainstems, and floodplains that provide diverse foraging opportunities for mobile consumers. These so-called foodscapes are theorized to promote the productivity and stability of aquatic consumers, such as stream fishes, but such theory is rarely incorporated into watershed management. Here, we develop a spatially-explicit food web simulation model to predict salmon and trout responses to restoration alternatives in the Meadow Creek watershed in northeastern Oregon, USA. The model tracks consumer-resource biomass dynamics over time in different reaches of the river network that are linked by spatial flows of basal resources, invertebrates, and fish. We parameterized the model with in-stream and riparian vegetation conditions collated from previous studies, and simulated patterns of periphyton, invertebrate, and fish abundance across the watershed. This spatially-explicit model gives insight into the potential for effects of local restoration actions to carry-over into different parts of the watershed, which can feed into the adaptive management process. This model is a step towards greater understanding of how watershed management influences foraging patterns and growth potential critical to supporting mobile consumers in river foodscapes.