This project is a collaboration between Dr. Bach (WWU), Dave Conca (Archeologist, ONP), John Meyer (Fisheries Biologist, ONP), Kasey Cykler (former WWU graduate student, completed Spring 2001, currently working at Lynden Public Works), and Sarah Armes (WWU graduate student).
The objective of this research is to evaluate the impacts of land-use changes on the hydrology of the Lake Ozette watershed (Olympic Peninsula, Washington) over the last 50 to 100 years. Of particular interest is the population of sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) whose numbers have declined substantially (90-98%) over the last four decades and was recently placed on the Federal Threatened Species list.
Here is
a link to a review of the Ozette listing. Use the 'Back Button' to
get back here.
Geography 433 students look at this page, including maps. The links
have lots of background information and references on the lake
environment.
A leading hypothesis for the decline of the salmon population is the influence of clear-cut logging on watershed hydrology (Jacobs et al. 1996). An estimated 85% of the watershed was clear-cut between 1940 and 1984 (Blum, 1988). Increased runoff and soil erosion would negatively impact salmon population by covering lakeshore gravels with fine grain sediment, making them unsuitable for spawning. Lake and river fluctuations can negatively impact salmon populations if streamflows or lake levels are low during time periods of use by fish. River flows must be high in late spring to early summer to allow adult salmon to migrate into the lake. Lake levels must stay high from November to June to ensure that eggs remain submerged along the shoreline. Lake Ozette sockeye have been observed to spawn at depths of 0.3 to 2.8 m (Dugokenski et al. 1981). Lake levels commonly drop below this level, desiccating the eggs prior to the emergence of the fry (Meyer and Brenkman, 1995).
Several agencies, including Olympic National Park, Washington State Department of Natural Resources and the Makah Fisheries Management Department, are working together on a plan to restore the population of sockeye salmon (Jacobs et al. 1996). Currently, most resources are allocated towards monitoring fish numbers and maintaining hatchery fish. However, all recommendations for salmon recovery in the lake suggest that the population decline is at least in part the result of land-use practices in the watershed (Adkison and Burgner, 1996; Geiger, 1996; Lestelle, 1996). If watershed hydrology is fundamentally incompatible with salmon survival, then focusing only on fishery information, population biology, and demographics will likely not lead to an effective restoration solution (Geiger, 1996). An understanding of the linkages between land-uses and watershed hydrology will allow the creation a land-use plan for the Lake Ozette watershed which will encourage salmon restoration.
This research will determine how the lake environment has changed over the last 60 years. The specific research questions to be addressed are: (1) have lakeshore sediments used by spawning salmon been impacted by land-use changes in the watershed? (2) has the hydrology, particularly lake-levels, streamflows and shoreline sedimentation, changed substantially during the last 60 years; and (3) can those changes be related to changes the sockeye salmon population?
Specific tasks to be completed:
1) Survey of lake shore environment to assess the suitability of
the nearshore lakebed substrate for spawning by sockeye salmon. Sediment
size, texture composition and morphology will be sampled using standard
procedures (Church et al. 1987; Kondolf and Wolman, 1993). Sediment cores
will be taken from the nearshore to assess whether fine-grain sediments
(the product of soil erosion induced by logging) have been deposited over
spawning gravels. If substantial areas of spawning ground are found to be
covered, the sediments will be dated using cesium-137 to determine the
timing of soil erosion (McIntyre et al. 1987). Sediments will be examined
for diatoms, ostracodes and other phytoplankton fossils, which can be used
to reconstruct climate variability. THIS PROJECT IS A MASTER'S THESIS OF
SARAH ARMES.
2) Shore survey data will be compared with a shore survey conducted in 1976 to assess changes in areas suitable for salmon spawning (Bortleson and Dion, 1979).
3) Reconstruct lake-levels and streamflows from data collected by the U.S. Geological Survey and Olympic National Park. These data, unfortunately, have not been continuously recorded within the watershed during the time period of interest. Regression techniques will be used to relate streamflow and lake level data from Lake Ozette to nearby streams with longer, continuous records. THIS PROJECT WAS THE MASTER'S THESIS OF KASEY CYKLER, available in Wilson Library (call# LD5778.9 .C94).
This project will help fulfill several important basic research needs, including: (1) a detailed view of the suitability of the nearshore lakebed substrate for spawning by sockeye salmon of the Lake Ozette watershed; (2) insight into climatic and land-use changes in the region; (3) a historical chronology of streamflows on the Ozette River and levels of Lake Ozette; and (4) an understanding of how the physical and biological systems adjust to these changes. This study will provide critically needed historical data to understand the historical dynamics of the salmon population and the local and regional environments. Since Lake Ozette is in Olympic National Park, a United Nations-designated World Heritage Site and Biosphere Reserve, the proposed research is of local, national, and international concern. The proposed study is a component of a larger study of the long-term environmental history of Lake Ozette in relation to Holocene (last 10,000 years) settlement pattern.
Selected Bibliography
Adkison, M.D. and R.L. Burgner 1996. Management and Research
Priorities
for Lake Ozette Sockeye,
In: Jacobs et al. The Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka)
Population in Lake Ozette
Washington, National Park Service Technical Report
NPS/CCSOSU/NRTR-96/04, pp. 99-110.
Blum, J.P. (1988) Assessment of factors affecting sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) production in Ozette Lake, WA. UW theses
Bortleson, G.C. and N.P. Dion 1979. Preferred and observed conditions for salmon in Ozette Lake and its tributaries, Clallan County, Washington, U.S. Geological Survey Water Resources Investigations 78-64.
Bradbury, J.P. (1988) Diatom biostratigraphy and the paleolimnology of Clear Lake, California, In: Late Quaternary Climate, Tectonism, and Sedimentation in Clear Lake, Northern California Coast Ranges, J.D. Sims (ed.), Geological Society of America Special Paper 214, pp. 97- 129.
Church, M.A., McLean, D.G. and J.F. Wolcott. 1987. River bed gravels: Sampling and analysis, In: Sediment Transport in Gravelbed Rivers, C.R. Thorne, J.C. Bathurst, and R.D. Hey (eds.) John Wiley: New York, pp. 43-79.
Cykler-Ignac, K. (2001) Effects of Hydraulic Variability on Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchuys nerka) in Lake Ozette, WA, MS thesis in Geography, Western Washington, University.
Forester, R.M. (1988) The Clear Lake, California, ostracode record, In: Late Quaternary Climate, Tectonism, and Sedimentation in Clear Lake, Northern California Coast Ranges, J.D. Sims (ed.), Geological Society of America Special Paper 214, pp. 131-139.
Geiger, H.J. 1996. Recommendations to Preserve and Restore the Lake Ozette Sockeye Population, In: Jacobs et al. The Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) Population in Lake Ozette Washington, National Park Service Technical Report NPS/CCSOSU/NRTR-96/04, pp. 111-121.
Haworth, E.Y. and J. W.G. Lund (1984) Lake Sediments and Environmental History , Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press.
Huesser, C.J. 1969. Modern pollen spectra from the Olympic Peninsula, Washington, Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, 96: 407-417.
Jacobs, R., Larson, G., Meyer, J., Currence, N., Hinton, J., Adkison, M., Burgner, R., Geiger, H., and L. Lestelle 1996. The Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) Population in Lake Ozette Washington, USA, National Park Service Technical Report NPS/CCSOSU/NRTR-96/04.
Kondolf, G. G. and Wolman, M.G. 1993. The Sizes of Salmonid Spawning Gravels. Water Resources Research 9: 2275-2285.
Lestelle, L. 1996. Recommendations for Developing an Approach for the Restoration of the Ozette Sockeye Salmon, In: Jacobs et al. The Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) Population in Lake Ozette Washington, National Park Service Technical Report NPS/CCSOSU/NRTR-96/04, pp. 123-140.
McIntyre, S.C., J.C. Lance, B.L. Campbell, and R.L. Miller 1987. Using cesium-137 to estimate soil erosion on a clear-cut hillside,Ó Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 42: 117-120.
Meyer, J. and S. Brenkman 1995, Water-quality conditions in the Lake Ozette Watershed and potential impacts on salmonids. Draft Report. Olympic National Park, Port Angeles, WA, 57pp.