Reconciling fish and farms: Methods for managing California rice fields as salmon habitat

Rearing habitat for juvenile Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in California, the southernmost portion of their range, has drastically declined throughout the past century. Recently, through cooperative agreements with diverse stakeholders, winter-flooded agricultural rice fields in California’s Central Valley have emerged as ecologically functioning floodplain rearing habitat for juvenile Chinook Salmon. From 2013 to 2016, we conducted a series of experiments examining methods to enhance habitat benefits for fall-run Chinook Salmon reared on winter-flooded rice fields in the Yolo Bypass, a modified floodplain managed for flood control, agriculture, and wildlife habitat in the Sacramento River Valley of California. Investigations included studying the effect of 1) post-harvest field substrate; 2) depth refugia; 3) duration of field drainage; and 4) duration of rearing occupancy on in-situ diet, growth and survival of juvenile salmon. Post-harvest substrate treatment had only a small effect on the lower trophic food web and an insignificant effect on growth rates or survival of rearing hatchery-origin, fall-run Chinook Salmon. Similarly, depth refugia, created by trenches dug to various depths, also had an insignificant effect on survival. Rapid field drainage yielded significantly higher survival compared to drainage methods drawn out over longer periods. A mortality of approximately one third was observed in the first week after fish were released in the floodplain. This initial mortality event was followed by high, stable survival rates for the remainder of the 6-week duration of floodplain rearing study. Across years, in-field survival ranged 7.4–61.6% and increased over the course of the experiments. Despite coinciding with the most extreme drought in California’s recorded history, which elevated water temperatures and reduced the regional extent of adjacent flooded habitats which concentrated avian predators, the adaptive research framework enabled incremental improvements in design to increase survival. Zooplankton (fish food) in the winter-flooded rice fields were 53-150x more abundant than those sampled concurrently in the adjacent Sacramento River channel. Correspondingly, observed somatic growth rates of juvenile hatchery-sourced fall-run Chinook Salmon stocked in rice fields were two to five times greater than concurrently and previously observed growth rates in the adjacent Sacramento River. The abundance of food resources and exceptionally high growth rates observed during these experiments illustrate the potential benefits of using existing agricultural infrastructure to approximate the floodplain wetland physical conditions and hydrologic patterns (shallow, long-duration inundation of cool floodplain habitats in mid-winter) under which Chinook Salmon evolved and to which they are adapted.

Substantiation and Selection of Optimal Method of Angren Section Field Drainage

This article describes the results of the timely drainage of the Angren section using the horizontal drains method. It thereby creates favorable conditions for the effective operation of all technological links of the unit, protecting water resources of the area where the section is located using drainage and quarry waters in the national economy.

Reconciling fish and farms: Methods for managing California rice fields as salmon habitat

The rearing habitat for juvenile Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in California, the southernmost portion of their range, has drastically declined throughout the past century. Recently, through cooperative agreements with diverse stakeholders, winter-flooded agricultural rice fields in California’s Central Valley have emerged as promising habitat for rearing juvenile Chinook Salmon. From 2013 to 2016, we conducted a series of experiments examining methods for rearing fall-run Chinook Salmon on winter-flooded rice fields in the Yolo Bypass, a modified floodplain of the Sacramento River in California. These included: 1) influence of field substrate differences from previous season rice harvest; 2) effects of depth refugia from avian predators (trenches); 3) field drainage methods to promote efficient egress of fish; and 4) in-field salmon survivorship over time. Zooplankton (fish food) in the winter-flooded rice fields were 53-150x more abundant when directly compared to the adjacent Sacramento River. Correspondingly, somatic growth rates of juvenile hatchery-sourced fall-run Chinook Salmon stocked in rice fields were two to five times greater versus fish in the adjacent Sacramento River. Post-harvest field substrate treatments had little effect on the lower trophic food web and had an insignificant effect on growth rates of in-field salmon. Though depth refugia did not directly increase survival, it buffered maximum water temperatures in the trenches and facilitated outmigration from fields during draining. Rapid field drainage methods yielded the highest survival and were preferable to drawn-out drainage methods. High initial mortality immediately after stocking was observed in the survival over time experiment with stable and high survival after the first week. In-field survival ranged 7.4–61.6% and increased over the course of the experiments. Despite coinciding with the most extreme drought in California’s recorded history, which elevated water temperatures and reduced the regional extent of adjacent flooded habitats which concentrated avian predators, the adaptive research framework enabled incremental improvements in design to increase survival. The abundance of food resources and exceptionally high growth rates observed during these experiments illustrate the benefits associated with reconciling off-season agricultural land use with fish conservation practices. Without any detriment to flood control or agricultural yield, there is great promise for reconciliation ecology between agricultural floodplains and endangered fish conservation where minor alterations to farm management practices could greatly enhance the effectiveness of fish conservation outcomes.

Reconciling fish and farms: Methods for managing California rice fields as salmon habitat

The rearing habitat for juvenile Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in California, the southernmost portion of their range, has drastically declined throughout the past century. Recently, through cooperative agreements with diverse stakeholders, winter-flooded agricultural rice fields in California’s Central Valley have emerged as promising habitat for rearing juvenile Chinook Salmon. From 2013 to 2016, we conducted a series of experiments examining methods for rearing fall-run Chinook Salmon on winter-flooded rice fields in the Yolo Bypass, a modified floodplain of the Sacramento River in California. These included: 1) influence of field substrate differences from previous season rice harvest; 2) effects of depth refugia from avian predators (trenches); 3) field drainage methods to promote efficient egress of fish; and 4) in-field salmon survivorship over time. Zooplankton (fish food) in the winter-flooded rice fields were 53-150x more abundant when directly compared to the adjacent Sacramento River. Correspondingly, somatic growth rates of juvenile hatchery-sourced fall-run Chinook Salmon stocked in rice fields were two to five times greater versus fish in the adjacent Sacramento River. Post-harvest field substrate treatments had little effect on the lower trophic food web and had an insignificant effect on growth rates of in-field salmon. Though depth refugia did not directly increase survival, it buffered maximum water temperatures in the trenches and facilitated outmigration from fields during draining. Rapid field drainage methods yielded the highest survival and were preferable to drawn-out drainage methods. High initial mortality immediately after stocking was observed in the survival over time experiment with stable and high survival after the first week. In-field survival ranged 7.4–61.6% and increased over the course of the experiments. Despite coinciding with the most extreme drought in California’s recorded history, which elevated water temperatures and reduced the regional extent of adjacent flooded habitats which concentrated avian predators, the adaptive research framework enabled incremental improvements in design to increase survival. The abundance of food resources and exceptionally high growth rates observed during these experiments illustrate the benefits associated with reconciling off-season agricultural land use with fish conservation practices. Without any detriment to flood control or agricultural yield, there is great promise for reconciliation ecology between agricultural floodplains and endangered fish conservation where minor alterations to farm management practices could greatly enhance the effectiveness of fish conservation outcomes.

Dialectics of Improvement

This book develops new insight into the idea of progress as improvement as the basis for an approach to literary Romanticism in the Scottish context. With chapter case studies covering poetry, short fiction, drama and the novel, it examines a range of key writers: Robert Burns, James Hogg, Walter Scott, Joanna Baillie and John Galt. Improvement, it shows, was not a unified ideal in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Scotland but rather a contested body of different ideas, some of which were mutually contradictory. The book untangles the complexity of this term that was applied variously to field drainage, elocution lessons, a taste for landscape scenery and the macrohistory of Western civilisation. As it explores, improvement provided a dominant theme for literary texts in this period, just as it saturated the wider culture. It was also of real consequence to questions about what literature is and what it can do: a medium of secular belonging, a vehicle of indefinite exchange, an educational tool or a theoretical guide to history. The book makes a significant contribution to debates around the relationship between Enlightenment and Romanticism, stressing a series of aesthetic innovations across the turn of the nineteenth century in a culture that was saturated by the dialectical workings of improvement.

FOOTBALL FIELD DRAINAGE SYSTEM WITH ARTIFICIAL COVERING (ON THE EXAMPLE OF INTER-SCHOOL STADIUM)

The calculations of the rain drainage system, which provides the collection of surface runoff from the interscholastic stadium, including a football field with artificial turf, running tracks, tribune, were performed. The optimal tracing of the system is designed, the best materials and storage capacity are selected. The assessment of the qualitative composition of collected effluents and the direction of their further utilization was carried out. Options of detailing of nodes of a shower drainage system according to different engineering and geological conditions of the territory of the Astrakhan region are considered: subsidence of soils, fl ooding by underground waters. The developed model, based on the principles of optimization and import substitution, allows to apply it as a model on the territory of the arid regions of the South of the country.