Impacts of a weir and power station on downstream migrating Atlantic salmon smolts in a German river

Weirs are barriers built across rivers for a wide range of other purposes than hydropower production. Like hydropower installations, weirs can negatively impact fish migrations. Downstream migration and mortality of Atlantic salmon smolts were studied during passage of a weir and power station by ta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:River Research and Applications
Main Authors: Havn, Torgeir Børresen, Thorstad, Eva Bonsak, Borcherding, Jost, Heermann, Lisa, Teichert, Maxim A. K., Ingendahl, Detlev, Tambets, Meelis, Sæther, Stein Are, Økland, Finn
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2020
Subjects:
downstream migration
migration speed
mortality
power station
radio telemetry
salmon smolt
weir
VDP::Matematikk og Naturvitenskap: 400::Zoologiske og botaniske fag: 480
Weir
Atlantic salmon
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2659465
https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.3590
Description
Summary:Weirs are barriers built across rivers for a wide range of other purposes than hydropower production. Like hydropower installations, weirs can negatively impact fish migrations. Downstream migration and mortality of Atlantic salmon smolts were studied during passage of a weir and power station by tagging 227 smolts with radio transmitters. Extra loss of smolts due to the weir and adjacent reservoir was 5.2%. Mortality was likely related to physical damage imposed to the smolts and/or increased predation risk. Extra loss of smolts did not differ between the weir and the power station (7.2%). Migration speeds were reduced at the power station but not at the weir. We conclude that mortality at one power station site may differ considerably among years, because the mortality was more than four times higher in a previous year than in this study. Increased river discharge seemed to decrease mortality and increase migration speeds at the power station. publishedVersion

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