Data product for "Anticipated climate warming effects on Bull Trout habitats and populations across the Interior Columbia River Basin"

This archive contains the data necessary to complete the general processing steps as outlined in the associated publication, Rieman et al. (2007). These steps include: 1) summarize site level observations of bull trout to identify lower elevation limits of natal habitats across the Columbia Basin; 2) summarize mean annual air temperatures for weather stations across the same area; 3) regress each set of observations against longitude and latitude (and elevation in the case of temperature) and compared the coefficients in the two regression models to consider whether climate could explain bull trout distributions; 4) use GIS to map the area and size distributions of thermally suitable habitat patches based on predicted distribution limits; and 5) use the GIS to explore changes in distributions, area, and number of suitable habitat patches of bull trout by elevating lower distribution limits, consistent with three levels of warming that could be realized as a result of future air temperature increases. The analysis was constrained to the potential range of bull trout in the basin following Rieman et al. (1997). Suitable patches were considered to be the area of a watershed above the predicted lower distribution limit of small (< 150 millimeters) bull trout because these individuals are strongly associated with natal habitat and a clear thermal gradient (Dunham and Rieman 1999; Dunham et al. 2003). This product includes the following (see Source information section) data entities: 1) A table (Excel spreadsheet and ASCII format) containing records of observations of the occurrence of bull trout, summarized within 76 streams sampled at multiple sites (along an elevation gradient) throughout the Interior Columbia Basin. Data include latitude, longitude, elevation, and presence/absence of brook trout. 2) A table (Excel spreadsheet and ASCII format) of mean annual air temperature 30-year normals (i.e., averages for a 30-year period) from the period 1961 to 1990 from various weather stations in the Columbia Basin. 3) A GIS grid used to model the lower limit of bull trout. When this grid is used in a GIS expression with the DEM for the study area, the lower limit boundary for bull trout can be raised or lowered along the elevation gradient to reflect changing climate scenarios. 4) Shapefiles and grids representing the lower limit of bull trout under the chosen climate scenarios. 5) Stream lines derived for the basin from the DEM using TauDEM software (Terrain Analysis Using Digital Elevation Models; Tarboton 1997). 6) Tables extracted from the TauDEM shapefiles that represent the area of suitable bull trout habitat under the climate scenarios.
To determine if climate influences bull trout populations, explore the implications of climate warming for this species, and estimate bull trout habitat response to a range of warming climate scenarios.
Original metadata date was 04/09/2009. Metadata modified on 02/07/2011 to adjust citation to include the addition of a DOI (digital object identifier). Minor changes made to metadata on 05/07/2013 when this data publication became available through the Forest Service Research Data Archive. Additional minor metadata updates were made on 04/07/2015. Minor metadata updates on 12/20/2016 and 08/06/2024.