Watershed Water Quality Monitoring Project/Supplemental material

Summary tables of water quality parameters analyzed (DO, temperature, conductivity, pH, turbidity, and TSS) and their importance in terms of effects on salmonids. Each table includes information on healthy (or unhealthy) range, species/life-stage, time-duration and effects.

Table 1: Dissolved Oxygen (DO)[edit | edit source]

Range	Species/Life-Stage	Effect	Reference
< 5.0 mg/L	Chinook Salmon (migrating adult)	Will avoid migrating to waters	Carter (2005)
5 mg/L - 6.5 mg/L	The embryonic and larval stages of salmonids	Exhibit symptoms of oxygen distress	Carter (2005)
9.75 mg/L - 8 mg/L	The embryonic and larval stages of salmonids	Fully protective of larvae and mature eggs.	Carter (2005)
<4 mg/L	Salmon	Effects Salmon Behavior and Embryo Development	Brett and Blackburn (1980)
6.5 mg/L	Adult Salmonids	Healthy Adult Salmonid Levels	EPA (1986)
4 mg/L	Adult Salmonids	Minimum healthy DO levels	EPA (1986)
<11 mg/L	Salmon Eggs	Delayed Hatching	Carter (2005)
<8 mg/L	Salmon Eggs and Larvae	Impaired Growth and Lower Survival Rates	Carter (2005)
<6 mg/L	Salmon Eggs	Most will die	Carter (2005)
<6 mg/L	Atlantic Salmon	Hypoxic Conditions	Burt et al. (2012)

Reference List[edit | edit source]

• Carter, K. (2005). The effects of dissolved oxygen on steelhead trout, Coho Salmon, and Chinook Salmon biology and function by life stage. California Regional Water Quality Control Board, North Coast Region, 10.
• Brett, J. R., and J. M. Blackburn (1981). Oxygen Requirements for Growth of Young Coho (Oncorhynchus Kisutch) and Sockeye (O. Nerka) Salmon at 15 °C. ​Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.
• Burt, K., Hamoutene, D., Mabrouk, G., Lang, C., Puestow, T., Drover, D., Losier, R. and Page, F. (2012). Environmental Conditions and Occurrence of Hypoxia Within Production Cages of Atlantic Salmon on the South Coast of Newfoundland. Aquaculture Research, Blackwell Science.
• EPA (1986). Quality Criteria for Water. Washington DC: Office of Water Regulations and Standards.

Table 2: Temperature[edit | edit source]

Range	Species/Life-Stage	Effect	Reference
22.0-24.0 (°C)	Chinook Salmon	Upper Temperature range which eliminates salmonids from an area	McCullough et al. (2001)
7.2-14.5 (°C)	Chinook Salmon (Adult)	Preferred temperatures	Bell (1986)
3.3-13.3 (°C)	Chinook Salmon (Adult)	Temperature range of spring migration	Bell (1986)
11.7-14.5 (°C)	Coho Salmon (Adult)	Preferred temperature range	Bell (1986)
19.1-23.9 (°C)	Chinook Salmon (Adult)	Range of temperatures causing thermal blockage to migration	McCullough et al. (2001)
6.0-11.0 (°C)	Steelhead Salmon (eggs)	Optimum temperature for salmonid eggs survival to hatching	McCullough et al. (2001)
6.0-11.0 (°C)	Chinook Salmon (eggs)	Optimum temperature for salmonid eggs survival to hatching	McCullough et al. (2001)
4.5-13.3 (°C)	Coho Salmon (eggs)	Preferred emergence temperature range	Bell (1986)
3.9-9.4 (°C)	Steelhead Salmon (eggs)	Temp. range where spawning occurs	Bell (1986)
11.0-15.6 (°C)	Chinook Salmon (Juvenile)	Temperature range for optimal growth. Anything over this threshold increases the risk of mortality from warm water disease	McCullough et al. (2001)

References[edit | edit source]

• Bell, M.C. (1986). “Fisheries handbook of engineering requirements and biological criteria.” Fish Passage Development and Evaluation Program. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
• McCullough, D.A., Spalding, S., Sturdevant, D., and Hicks, M. (2001). “Issue Paper 5: Summary of technical literature examining the effects of temperature on salmonids.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 10, Seattle, WA. EPA 910-D-01-005. <https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPURL.cgi?Dockey=P100LVKL.TXT>

Table 3: Conductivity[edit | edit source]

Range	Species/Life-Stage	Time-Duration	Effect	Reference
< 300 µS/cm This range is healthy	Rainbow Trout Embryos	7 days	Impairs Embryo Survival	Beach (2020)
150 - 500 µS/cm This is the healthy	Mixed Fisheries	Not specified	Healthy ranges for fisheries in the US	EPA (2012)

References[edit | edit source]

• Beach, L. (2020). “Laboratory Investigation on the Effects of Conductivity on the Sensitive Early Life Stages of Fishes from the Appalachian Region.” <https://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2300&context=etd> (Dec. 5, 2021).
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (2012) “5.9 Conductivity: What is conductivity and why is it important?” <https://archive.epa.gov/water/archive/web/html/vms59.html> (Apr. 20, 2022).

Table 4: pH[edit | edit source]

Range	Species/Life-Stage	Effect	Reference
6.7-8.3	Chinook Salmon	Preferred Range	Bell (1986)
5.5	General Fish	Lower limit for for general fish protection	Bell (1970)
6.0-7.2	Atlantic Salmon/eggs+fry	Optimum range for survival	RSPCA (2021)
6.2-6.8	Atlantic salmon smolts	Non-toxic range for salmon in low Aluminum concentrated environment	Fivelstad (2013)
5.8–6.4	Sockeye Salmon (land-locked)	Digging and upstream behavior were significantly inhibited	Ikuta (2001)
< 5.8	Atlantic Salmon	Mortality at all life stages	Ikuta (2001)
<6.0	Atlantic Salmon (eggs+fry)	Increased mortality due to ionic toxicity	RSPCA (2021)

References[edit | edit source]

• Bell, M.C. (1986). “Fisheries handbook of engineering requirements and biological criteria.” Fish Passage Development and Evaluation Program. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
• Bell, H.L. (1970). “Effects of low pH on the survival and emergence of aquatic insects.” Water Research Pergamon Press, 5, 313–319.
• Fivelstad, S. (2013). “Long-term carbon dioxide experiments with salmonids.” Aquacultural Engineering, 53, 40-44. <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0144860 912000908> (Dec. 1, 2021)
• Ikuta, K., Munakata, A., Aida, K., Amano, M. and Kitamura, S. (2001). “Effects of low pH on upstream migratory behavior in landlocked sockeye salmon Oncorhunchus nerka.” Water Air Soil Pollut., 130, 99–106.
• Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). (2021). “RSPCA welfare standards for farmed Atlantic Salmon.” <https://science.rspca.org.uk/sciencegroup/farmanimals/standards/salmon>

Table 5: Turbidity[edit | edit source]

Range	Species/Life-Stage	Time-Duration	Effect	Reference
45 NTU	Coho Salmon (Juvenile)	14-days	Displacement	Sigler (1980)**
22 NTU	Coho Salmon (Juvenile)	14-days	Reduced Growth	Sigler et al. (1984)**
20-60 NTU	Coho Salmon (Juvenile)	8-days	Reduced Feeding	Berg (1982)**
7.5 NTU	Brown Trout		Reduced Growth	Bachman (1984)**
231 NTU	Brook Trout (Juvenile)	1-day	Stress (Increased ventilation)	Carlson (1984)**
70 NTU	Coho Salmon (Juvenile)	Not specified	Avoidance	Bisson and Bilby (1982)**
22-265 NTU	Coho Salmon (Juvenile)	Not specified	Avoidance	Sigler (1980)**
20-60 NTU	Coho Salmon (Juvenile)	6-days	Altered Behaviour (visual)	Berg (1982)**
20-60 NTU	Coho Salmon (Juvenile)	6-days	Altered Behaviour (loss of territoriality)	Berg (1982)**

Note: **All sources from Lloyd (1987)

References[edit | edit source]

• Bachman, R. A. (1984). “Foraging behavior of free-ranging wild and hatchery brown trout in a stream”. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 113: 1-32.
• Berg, L. (1982). “Effects of Short Term Exposure to Suspended Sediment on the Behaviour of Juvenile” Pages 177-196 in G. F. Hartman et al., editors. Proceedings of the Carnation Creek workshop: a ten-year review. Department of Fisheries and Oceans, Pacific Biological Station, Nanaimo, Canada.
• Bisson, P. A., and R. E. Bilby. (1982). “Avoidance of suspended sediment by juvenile coho salmon”. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 2:371- 374.
• Carlson, R. W. (1984). “The influence of pH, dissolved oxygen, suspended solids or dissolved solids upon ventilatory and cough frequencies in the bluegill Lepomis macrochirus and brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis”. Environmental Pollution Series A Ecological and Biological 34:149-169.  
• Llyod, D. S. (1987). “Turbidity as a Water Quality Standard for Salmonid Habitats in Alaska.” North American Journal of Fisheries Management, 7(2).
• Sigler, J. W. (1980). “Effects of chronic turbidity on feeding, growth and social behavior of steelhead trout and coho salmon.” Doctoral dissertation, University of ldaho, Moscow.
• Sigler, J. W., T. C. Bjornn, and F. H. Everest (1984) “Effects of chronic turbidity on density and growth of steelheads and coho salmon.” Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, 113:142-150.

Table 6: Total suspended solids (TSS)[edit | edit source]

Range	Species/Life-Stage	Time-Duration	Effect	Reference
25+ mg/L (Factor >2.5)	Rainbow Trout (Juvenile/Adult)	13 Weeks	Increased unionized ammonia nitrogen concentrations had no relevant detrimental effect on rainbow trout physiology and performance at concentrations of up to 0.05 mg/L.	Becke et al. (2019)
60-180 mg/L	Atlantic Salmon	Not specified	Avoidance behavior	Ye et al. (2015)
800-47,000 mg/L	Coho Salmon	Not specified	80% reduction in fertilization success	Ye et al. (2015)
2,000-3,000 mg/L	Coho Salmon	192 hrs	Reduced feeding efficiency	Ye et al. (2015)
40,000 mg/L	Coho Salmon	96 hrs	Physical damages to gills	Ye et al. (2015)
207,000 mg/L	Chinook Salmon	1 hr	100% mortality of juveniles	Ye et al. (2015)

References[edit | edit source]

• Becke, C., Schumann, M., Steinhagen, D., Rojas-Tirado, P., Geist, J., & Brinker, A. (2019). Effects of unionized ammonia and suspended solids on rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in recirculating aquaculture systems. Aquaculture, 499, 348-357.
• Ye, S., & Ying, Q. (2015). Water quality in RAS for salmonids and performance of MBBR: case study at Vik Settefisk AS (Master's thesis, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Ås).