The face of the water, in time, became a wonderful book--a book that was a dead language to the uneducated passenger, but which told its mind to me without reserve… And it was not a book to be read once and thrown aside, for it had a new story to tell every day” –Mark Twain (Two Views of the Mississippi, 1883)

• Humans rely on freshwater systems not only for drinking water, but also for agriculture, transportation, energy production, industrial processes, waste disposal, and the extraction of fish and other products.

• Human settlements worldwide are concentrated near freshwater ecosystems — over half of the world’s population lives within 20 km of a permanent river (Small and Cohen, 1999).

• Freshwater fisheries valued globally at $5.58 billion/year and ecosystem services of wetlands valued $70 billion/year (IUCN Review, Darwall et al. 2008)

Hydraulic mining originated out of ancient Roman techniques that used water to excavate soft underground deposits. Romans invented “hushing”, certain landscapes in Spain still bear marks of this highly invasive mining technique. called “hydraulicking” by miners of CA, technique still used to remove hillsides

Hydraulic mining originated out of ancient Roman techniques that used water to excavate soft underground deposits. Romans invented “hushing”, certain landscapes in Spain still bear marks of this highly invasive mining technique. called “hydraulicking” by miners of CA, technique still used to remove hillsides

Hydraulic mining originated out of ancient Roman techniques that used water to excavate soft underground deposits. Romans invented “hushing”, certain landscapes in Spain still bear marks of this highly invasive mining technique. called “hydraulicking” by miners of CA, technique still used to remove hillsides

First used by Edward Matteson near Nevada City, California in 1853 during the California Gold Rush.

By the mid-1880s, it is estimated that 11 million ounces of gold (worth approximately US$7.5 billion at mid-2006 prices) had been recovered by hydraulic mining in the California Gold Rush.

Hydroelectric power generation comprises over half of all renewable energy generation in California (California Energy Commission 2010

Majority (84%) of dams are for: 47% Irrigation (n=709) 23% Water supply (n=342) 14% Hydroelectric (n=207)

Hydroelectric power generation comprises over half of all renewable energy generation in California (California Energy Commission 2010

Majority (84%) of dams are for: 47% Irrigation (n=709) 23% Water supply (n=342) 14% Hydroelectric (n=207)

• 90% of eggs observed in Sierras were in shallow, sheltered waters (n=147) (Bondi et al. 2013)

  • < 0.67 m total depth
  • < 0.15 m/s velocity

Expect flow regulation to limit connectivity between populations, thus causing loss of genetic variation/diversity, inbreeding risk goes up and pop bottlenecks, risk of extirpation increases in small populations.

Expect flow regulation to limit connectivity between populations, thus causing loss of genetic variation/diversity, inbreeding risk goes up and pop bottlenecks, risk of extirpation increases in small populations.

Expect flow regulation to limit connectivity between populations, thus causing loss of genetic variation/diversity, inbreeding risk goes up and pop bottlenecks, risk of extirpation increases in small populations.

• Methods like RADSeq leverage genome-wide genetic variation to provide insight into ecological/population health
• Many amphibian species cryptic/lack data, Large genome size, assessment and monitoring hard to do
• restriction site-associated DNA sequencing, highly efficient genotyping across thousands of individual samples for targeted loci
• For frogs, can sample with non-invasive methods using mouth swabs, or tadpole tail clips

These are already small populations! Mainstem may have been the source, or the highway that connected these tributary sites.

using the mean pairwise comparison value for Fst and mean river distance, so if 11 sites, approx 55 possible combinations combn(11, m = 2)

Flow management will become even more critical and difficult under warming climate (more rain/less snow, more extreme events and less predictable patterns)

Why does structure matter? Indicates loss of variation, potential limited connectivity, small population sizes, isolation, divergence, etc.

• (i.e., small pops. with limited connectivity, low diversity)
• RAPTURE/RADSeq is a powerful and effective method
• Genomics should be an integral component in assessments & monitoring in future conservation efforts
• Targeted research assessing environmental flows & ecological traits across taxa (fish, BMI, frogs)