RESULTS
ANTICIPATED FUTURE RESULTS
A computerized inventory of existing Elwha River Valley plants and animals in various natural history collections around the country will be made available to specialists around the world by way of a search facility associated with a dedicated “Elwha River Valley Biodiversity” website. In the same way, inventories of all organisms collected along the Elwha will be made available following the termination of each field season, and a full inventory will be made available following the termination of the grant. Participating scientists, in close collaboration with students in the program, will prepare a series of pertinent publications: new species descriptions, keys, guides, and annotated checklists of the flora and fauna of the Elwha River Valley. The specimens collected, while adding enormously to the systematic collections of the participating institutions, will be made available for more detailed study to project participants as well as to qualified specialists outside of the program. A diverse array of systematic, zoogeographic, and ecological studies will result.
The results of this work will provide the crucial data needed to compare and assess biotic change following dam removal. Without it, there will be no way to adequately judge the pros and cons of dam removal in the Elwha Valley and in other parts of the world where similar action is contemplated (Gregory et al., 2002; Hart et al., 2002; Duda et al., 2008). In the long-run, that is, during the recovery stage in years to follow, this baseline information will be essential to adequately address a multitude of interrelated questions ranging from salmon biology to river restoration and diverse aspects of ecosystem ecology (Wunderlich et al., 1994; Hoffman and Winter, 1996; Allaway, 2004; Duda et al., 2008). The kinds of questions and the scope of topics will include, but are certainly not limited to, the following: What is the role of marine-derived nutrients in aquatic and riverine ecosystems? How will productivity change at various trophic levels? How will the trophic structure of the ecosystem change? How will the return of salmonids affect populations of predator and prey species? What is the process and rate of recolonization of suitable habitats by anadromous fish? What is the process and rate of adaptation of the river-channel and floodplain morphology to the return of natural sediment loads and woody debris inputs? How and when can a dynamic equilibrium be reached? How will populations of birds and terrestrial mammals respond to vegetation change in the riverine zone and in the former reservoirs? What will be the physical responses of the Elwha River estuary, as well as down-current near-shore areas, to changes in sediment discharge? How will the near-by biotic communities of the marine environment respond? How effective is recovery of salmonids by natural processes versus out-planting of hatchery-origin fish? What will be the interactions between anadromous and resident fish? Can kokanee in a dammed lake reestablish a run of sockeye salmon? What will be the short- and long-term effects of rapid sediment flushing on invertebrate and fish populations, and on aquatic habitats? What methods of vegetation restoration are most effective? Because all of the water above the upper dam is in the National Park, the ecological changes that follow the opening of the river will be available for long-term study, without the confounding influences of human disturbance that are common in virtually all other river restoration projects. Thus, the Elwha dam removal constitutes a unique opportunity to study the recovery of a riparian ecosystem, with profound implications for the value of dam removal elsewhere as a general conservation strategy.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION AND HUMAN RESOURCES
The work described here will contribute significantly to education and the development of human resources in science at the undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate levels. Within the limits of the budget, and at any one time during the five-year life of the grant, the project will provide financial support and direct involvement in field and laboratory research for a minimum of six graduate students (shared between UW and CAS) and ten undergraduates (shared between UW, CAS, and PC). Numerous additional students will benefit as unpaid volunteers. The students will have major responsibility for collecting, identification, curation, data collection, analysis, and interpretation. They will also share authorship and be full participants in the preparation of reports and publications. The graduate students will also gain experience through presentation of the results of the survey at seminars both within the participating universities and at regional and national meetings.