Flow augmentation from off-channel storage improves salmonid habitat and survival

In the Western United States, juvenile salmon and steelhead are especially vulnerable to streamflow depletion in the dry season. Releasing water from off-channel storage is a method of streamflow augmentation increasingly used to offset the impacts of anthropogenic flow alteration. However, to date, no studies have evaluated the effects of these small-scale flow augmentations on salmonids. Here we quantify the effects of one such augmentation project on habitat connectivity, water quality, invertebrate drift, juvenile salmonid movement, and survival. Our study took place in a Northern California stream and included an unusually wet summer (2019) and a more typical dry summer (2020). We found that differences in ambient streamflows between the two years mediated the physical and ecological effects of a 13.9 L/s augmentation treatment. In the dry year, flow augmentation significantly improved dissolved oxygen and habitat connectivity at sites > 1.5 km downstream from the point of augme..., These data were generated to investigate the effect of flow augmentation into a small, intermittent stream: Porter Creek in Healdsburg, California, USA. The flow augmentation experiment released 13.9 L/s of water from an off-stream pond into the stream channel for one month in the summers of 2019 and 2020. Our objectives were (1) to evaluate the spatial effects of flow augmentation on habitat connectivity and (2) to measure the response of physical and biotic variables that influence the rearing profitability and fitness of summer-rearing salmonids to a flow manipulation of known proximity and magnitude. To address the first objective, we measured the extent of the wetted channel from the point of augmentation downstream to the creek outlet. Wetted channel extent below the augmentation release point was compared to an unaltered, control reach extending approximately 2 km upstream of the augmentation. To address the second objective, we estimated how flow augmentation affected dissolved ..., , # Flow augmentation from off-channel storage improves salmonid habitat and survival

[https://doi.org/10.6078/D1GT31](https://doi.org/10.6078/D1GT31)

## Description of the data and file structure

#### Data in this dataset include three main types:

1. Raw data from continuous monitoring devices
1. Onset HOBO U20 water level loggers (Water level (m), and Water Temperature (C))
2. Onset HOBO U26 dissolved Oxxygen data loggers (DO (mg/L) and Water Temperature (C))
3. PIT Tag Antenna Detections (Date, Sitecode, Tag number, Species, Origin)
4. Augmentation and Streamflow data from stream gages
2. Measured Data
1. Benthic Invertebrate Drift Data (Stream, reach, site, date, taxa, length (mm), weight (mg) plus metadata files)
2. Pool Habitat data (hand measurements of dissolved oxygen (mg/L), water depth, water temperature velocity)
3. Wetted Habitat Data (e.g. Site, date, conditions (wet, dry, intermittent), location, rkm length)
4. Electrofishing data (e.g. site, cre...