Glossary

 

6-HUC: HUCs (hydrologic unit codes) are a standard hydrological classification system.  There are some 7,500 HUC-6s within the U.S. portion of the Columbia River basin.

actual flows: Flows as modified by upstream regulation and diversion.

adiabatic mixing: A meteorological event sometimes called Chinook winds. This occurs when a cold front is warmed due to changes in air pressure.

Alternative 2:  A combination of strategies that include breeching five hydroelectric projects, improved hatcheries, and equal emphasis on improving tributary habitat on public and private land. Alternative 2 places equal effort in improving habitat on private and public lands.

Alternative 5:  A combination of strategies that do not include breeching but propose increasing spring and summer mainstem flows, improving hatcheries, and emphasis on improving tributary habitat on public lands. Alternative 5 emphasizes habitat actions on public lands over private lands.

Alternative 6:  A combination of strategies that do not include breeching but propose increasing juvenile transportation, reducing spring flows, increasing summer flows, improving hatcheries and emphasis on improving tributary habitat on public lands.  Alternative 6 requires the same amount of effort as Alternative 5 does for public lands but significantly less on public lands

Average Abundance Rank:

Bayesian belief network (BBN):  A model that depicts the probability of events or conditions based on causal relations such as between habitats and species; uses a form of Bayesian statistics.

Beverton-Holt model:  A generally accepted stock-recruitment model that can be used to determine harvest and stock size for semelparous species such as Pacific salmon.

Beverton-Holt formulation:  see Beverton-Holt functions

Beverton-Holt functions:  The mathematical formulas that describe the relationships between fish survival, productivity, fecundity and abundance.

biodiversity:  the variety of life and its processes; includes components of structure, function, and process of species, communities, ecosystems, and other levels of biological organization

biodiversity, productivity, and resource-use sustainability (BPS):  three potential goals for managing for ecological integrity under ecosystem management.

Biological Objectives:  Target levels set by the Framework process for: numbers of individuals (fish or wildlife population sizes), amount of habitat types and attributes, and functional attributes.

biological performance:  The ability of a watershed to support and sustain life as measured by productivity, capacity and life history diversity of diagnostic species.

biological performance response:  The predicted change in biological performance as the result of implementing a particular alternative for environmental management.

Bio-Rules:  Translate knowledge about the environment into knowledge, or operating hypotheses, about species response. They describe the suitability of the environment for species performance. BioRules address two aspects of performance: productivity and capacity.

carcass stage:  The final stage of a salmon life when the animal dies.

Closely Associated:  Wildlife habitat types or structural conditions that play an essential need in supporting a wildlife species in its overall maintenance and viability; as used in the SHP database.

community:  The array of species, and their ecological interactions, existing in a particular environment and geographic area.

community richness:  An EDT Level 2 ecological attribute referring to the number of species in a particular area.

confidence rating:  An evaluation of the overall strength of scientific evidence that describes wildlife habitat relationships.

CRiSP Model 4: The Columbia River Salmon Passage model used for the Columbia River mainstem. It calculates fish survival and movement through the hydroelectric system.  EDT used some of the data sets developed for this model.

current condition:  see Current Potential

Current Potential:  The likely array of aquatic and terrestrial environmental conditions over the most recent decade, as depicted at a relatively coarse level of geographic resolution.

Ecological Work Group:  A group within the Framework process responsible for scientific analysis of the policy alternatives

Evolutionary Significant Unit (ESU): A combination of Distinct Population Segments that are collectively protected by the Endangered Species Act.

ecosystem:  The set of species and biological communities, including all biotic and abiotic factors and their interactions, existing in a particular environment and geographic area.

EDT approach:  A science-based approach to formalizing and analyzing actions to improve the sustainability and production of migratory salmon. The approach integrates the quality and quantity of habitat across the salmon life cycle. It estimates the ability of the environment to support a population in terms of abundance, productivity, and life history diversity.

effectiveness:  The extent that an attribute might be expected to change under a strategy.

effectiveness monitoring:  Determining the degree to which the biological system responds to management activities as expected.

embeddedness:  Degree to which large particles (boulders, rubble, gravel) are surrounded or covered by fine sediment, usually measured in classes according to percent coverage.

environmental attributes: Conditions in the environment that are used by EDT to evaluate the quality of habitat. They can be abiotic (water temperature) or biotic (i.e., community diversity).

Fall redistribution:  An early-fall movement of yearling salmon into new territory in the freshwater environment.

Framework strategies:  Strategies are actions that might be implemented to manage a watershed; strategy blocks are suites of actions that comprise an alternative.

freshwater rearing stage: The salmon life history stage following fry colonization. Fish are largely stationary and activities are mainly focused on feeding and growth. 

functional analysis:  The name given to our evaluation of the ecological roles of fish and wildlife.

functional attributes:  Categories of key ecological functions.

functional richness:  The number of categories of key ecological functions present in a particular biological community.

functional web:  The array of key ecological functions and the various species performed by them, in a community, along with ecological links among species and between species and their habitats.

Future Potential:  Conditions in the basin assuming alternative management strategies have been implemented. These strategies predict changes in attributes that have the potential to improve salmon performance over the next 100 years.

Generally Associated:  Habitat types or structural conditions that play a supportive role for a species overall maintenance and viability; as used in the SHP database.

habitat attributes:  See key environmental correlates (KECs); term used in the SHP wildlife database; refers to specific substrates and other aspects of a species' environment at spatial scales of resolution finer than those of habitat types and vegetation structural conditions.

habitat capacity:  Habitat quality times habitat area, similar to the Habitat Unit in the Habitat Evaluation Procedure.

Habitat Condition Index (HCI):  The Framework term used for habitat capacity in the wildlife analyses.

historic condition:  See Historic Potential.

Historic Potential:  Conditions in the basin that likely existed about 150 years ago (prior to non-native human influences).

HUC:  Hydrologic unit code; refers to a strictly hierarchical mapping of water containment units conducted by US Geological Survey.  Levels in the hierarchy are denoted by numbers, including the following:  4-HUC = subbasin, 5-HUC = watershed; 6-HUC = subwatershed.

h-VSP analysis:  A viable salmon population model that includes habitat conditions. This model, once used by the National Marine Fisheries Service, has been superceded by more recent habitat-based salmon population models.

ICBEMP:  Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project; of USDI Bureau of Land Management and USDA Forest Service.

incubation stage:  The period of the salmon life cycle from egg fertilization until hatching.

intensity:  Framework intensity scores indicate the extent of implementation for management strategies; intensity scores modify effectiveness ratings by specifying full or reduced effectiveness.

interstitial space:  The space between the material (e.g., sand, gravel, cobbles) that comprise the spawning substrate in streams.

juvenile migration timing:  The time during the salmon life cycle when juvenile fish either redistribute into fresh water or start their movement to the ocean.

key ecological functions (KEF):  The major ecological roles played by a species in its ecosystem.

key environmental correlate (KEC):  An aspect of a species' environment finer in scale than major vegetation or habitat type; includes specific habitat substrates and also non-habitat aspects of a species' environment, such as noise, effects of other species, etc. See also Environmental Attributes.

Life History Diversity:  the multitude of life history pathways (temporally and spatially connected sequences life history segments) available for the species to complete its life cycle.

life history pattern:  a collection of similar trajectories, as applied in the EDT analytical model.

management activities:  In the SHP wildlife database, refers to a set of general categories of management actions that might influence habitats for wildlife; extended to fish in this report.

Manning's equation: A formulation used by hydrologists to assess sheer forces in rivers. This report used this equation to determine the wetted channel width.

Moderate worldview: An intermediate world view that reflects likely outcomes when only a portion of the assumptions in the Technical Optimistic and Technical Pessimistic world views actually occur.

Multi-Species Framework:  A process conceived by the Northwest Power Planning Council to analyze strategic choices associated with fish and wildlife recovery in the Columbia Basin.

natural stream flow:  Flow without consideration of any upstream diversion or regulation.

nutrient load: A Level 1 Environmental Attribute used by EDT. Denotes the monthly concentration of nutrients such as nitrate and phosphorous.

ocean type: The portion of a salmon population that moves to the ocean in their first year of life.

original source: The reference or study that is the source of empirical data.

PATH: Plan for Analyzing and Testing Hypotheses. The PATH members use a variety of modeling tools to address questions related to salmon recovery in the Columbia Basin.

population carrying capacity:  The theoretical maximum size of a population that can be sustained by specific environmental conditions and resources present in a particular area.

population productivity: A term used by fish biologists to express the growth rate of a population. This term does not address density dependence.

population:  The set of interbreeding organisms of a particular species existing in a particular area.

potential future performance:  see Future Potential

Present:  The habitat types or structural conditions provides marginal support to a species overall maintenance and viability; as used in the SHP database.

productivity:  see Population Productivity.

redd construction:  The process of making a spawning nest in the gravel bed of a river by salmon or steelhead.

Resident fish:  Fish that spend their entire life cycle in freshwater. For program purposes, resident fish include landlocked anadromous fish (e.g., white sturgeon, kokanee and coho), as well as traditionally defined resident fish species.

Ricker model:  A density-dependent population model developed by fisheries biologist W.E. Ricker to describe the relationship between recruits and spawners or total offspring for various population sizes.

Ricker recruitment curves:  Graphical representations of the results/outputs (e.g., recruitment function) from a Ricker model.

runoff:  Defines the amount of flow generated from each 6-HUC unit into the stream network; runoff was estimated from the Distributed Hydrologic Soils Vegetation Model (DHSVM).

saltwater rearing stage: The portion of a salmon life cycle when they live in the ocean.

sediment load: A Level 1 environmental attribute considered in the EDT modeling process. It refers to the mean monthly concentration of fine sediments in the water.

sinuosity:  The amount of bending, winding and curving in a stream or river.

sinuosity index:  A category used to describe the degree a stream bends, winds or curves.

spawning stage:  The portion of a salmon life cycle when fish release and fertilize eggs

species assemblage:  The set of species occurring in a particular area without regard to their ecological interactions (see Community).

Species Habitat Project (SHP) database:  A database on wildlife in Oregon and Washington, from the Species-Habitat Project (Johnson and O'Neil 2001).

Spring dispersal: Refers to the initial movement of fry during the spring months.

Spring-Fall dispersal: Refers to the combined movement in the spring and subsequent redistribution movements of salmon that remain in fresh water for one year.

stream type: The portion of a salmon population that remains in fresh water for a year.

survival landscape: A conceptual term used by EDT modelers to convey the idea that salmon survival and abundance is influenced by a mix of environmental attributes that varies depending on where the fish occurs in the basin. This report considers each 6-HUC to be a survival landscape.

sustainability:  The ability to maintain diversity, productivity, resilience to stress, health, renewability, and/or yields of desired values, resources, uses, products, or services from an ecosystem while also maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem over time.

Technology Optimistic worldview: Assumes that strategies for fish recovery that emphasize technology will be successful.

Technology Pessimistic worldview: Assumes that strategies for fish recovery that do not emphasize technology will be successful.

The 4-Hs: Habitat, Hydro, Harvest and Hatcheries.

total functional diversity:  The full array of all categories of key ecological functions (KEFs) of wildlife species in a particular area or community, along with the relative redundancy (number of species) of each KEF category.

trajectories:  Multiple pathways generated by a Trajectory Generator module, in the EDT analytical model.

Trajectory Generator module: Component of EDT software that creates a life history pathway (i.e., trajectory) that a single fish will follow. Many trajectories are generated for each EDT analysis.

translation examples: Formulas and functions used by the Ecological Work Group to convert Level 2 ecological attributes to Level 3 biological performance.

validation monitoring:  Monitoring studies that seek to test the major underlying assumptions about how a biological system operates.

water temperatures: Level 2 ecological attributes used in the EDT modeling process. The temperature of water is evaluated as a daily maximum, a daily minimum and as surface water is influenced by inputs of ground water.

water velocity: A measure of how fast water flows. Natural flow is an EDT Level 1 environmental attribute. Water velocity is estimated in this report using Manning's Equation.

wildlife habitat relationships (WHR):  General term referring to species-specific depictions of habitats and environmental features that influence the distribution and abundance of wildlife species.

wildlife population performance:  Measured by the Habitat Condition Index that addresses habitat capacity.

worldview: A concept describing how a biological system operates that used in this report to assess uncertainty of the fish results for each of the three alternatives analyzed.

 

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