Talk provided during the Scottish Fisheries Co-ordination Centre Annual Biologist's Meeting, February 3rd and 4th 2016, Milton Birnam Hotel

1. Scotland River Temperature
Monitoring Network

2. Temperature and salmonids
• Influences:
– spawning location and timing
– Embryo development and timing of hatch
and emergence
– Feeding and growth
– Productivity
– Size at age
– Population demographics (age at
smolting, lifetime mortality)
– Survival at temperature extremes

3. Background
• 2010 CAMERAS (co-ordinated agenda for marine,
environment and rural affairs science) monitoring
strategy
• No systematic, large scale, quality controlled
temperature data collection in Scotland
• Freshwater MAP (monitoring action plan) monitoring
gaps
– Stream temperature change
– Efficacy of riparian woodlands to mitigate change
• Action: Develop a co-ordinated network for river
temperature monitoring
• 2013 NERC funding for PhD support (Faye Jackson)

4. Previous Research
Moorland
2km woodland
Malcolm, I. A., Soulsby, C., Hannah, D. M., Bacon, P. J., Youngson, A.
F. and Tetzlaff, D. (2008). The influence of riparian woodland on stream
temperatures: implications for the performance of juvenile salmonids.
Hydrol. Process. 22, 968–979. doi: 10.1002/hyp.6996

5. Previous research
•Multiple Linear regression
models of river temperature
•Single river (Dee)
•Predictions of current and
future river T
•Simplistic representation of
forest effects
•No spatial correlation
•Sampling spatial rather than
targeted
Hrachowitz, M., Soulsby, C., Imholt, C., Malcolm, I. A. and Tetzlaff, D. (2010).
Thermal regimes in a large upland salmon river: a simple model to identify the
influence of landscape controls and climate change on maximum temperatures.
Hydrological Processes. 24, 3374–3391. doi: 10.1002/hyp.7756

6. Objectives of SRTMN
1. Characterise river T across Scotland
2. Identify areas susceptible to climate change
3. Improve understanding of controls on T
4. Develop models to predict T change
5. Determine optimum areas for riparian tree planting
6. Assess long-term trends in T
Managed within a quality controlled (JCoP) network with
common standards for data collection and storage
(FLEObs)

7. Design of the SRTMN
• Identify landscape controls on T
• Select some representative catchments
• Generate GIS based proxies
– Location (x,y coordinates), elevation, slope,
upstream catchment area, channel orientation,
channel width, hillshading, distance to coast ,
riparian woodland
• Ensure sites cover environmental range
• Consider use of existing monitoring sites

8. Ensuring coverage of the environmental range
Black points = evenly spread grid over the environmental range
Green points = potential sites Red points = selected site
Blue points = alternative sites Yellow points = current monitoring sites

9. Check adequate coverage
• Grey points = potential
sites
• Red sites = selected
sites
• Good coverage of
environmental range
Jackson F.L. Malcolm I.A. Hannah D.M. (in press) A novel approach for designing large-scale
river temperature monitoring networks. Hydrology Research. DOI: 10.2166/nh.2015.106

10. Logger deployment
• Loggers deployed winter 2014 - spring 2015
• MSS in collaboration with local fisheries
trusts / SEPA where possible
Trusts:
• River Dee Trust
• Tweed Foundation
• Caithness District Salmon Fishery Board
• River Brora District Salmon Fishery Board
• Kyle of Sutherland Fisheries Trust
• Argyll Fisheries Trust
• Ayrshire Rivers Trust
• Galloway Fisheries Trust
• Spey Foundation

11. Preliminary results
• 25 sites on River Spey 2015 ‘proof of
concept’ for upscaling
• Develop a model to predict 7 day
mean maximum water temperature
(Tmax)
• Elevation ↑ = Tw ↓
• River distance to sea ↑ = Tw ↑
• Woodland ↑ = Tw ↓

12. Further information
• E-mail:
Temperature.Data@marlab.ac.uk
• Web:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/marine/S
almon-Trout-
Coarse/Freshwater/Monitoring/tempe
rature