A fisheye view of riverine hydropower systems th

Authors: Brenda M Pracheil C R DeRolph M P Schramm M S Bevelhimer

Publish Date: 2016/01/13

Volume: 26, Issue: 2, Pages: 153-167

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Abstract

Oneway connectivity maintained by fish passing through hydropower turbines in fragmented rivers can be important to population dynamics but can also introduce a new and significant source of mortality Sources of mortality during turbine passage can come from several sources including blade strike shear forces cavitation or pressure decreases and parsing the contributions of these individual forces is important for advancing and deploying turbines that minimize these impacts to fishes We used a national hydropower database and conducted a systematic review of the literature to accomplish three goals 1 report on the spatial distribution of turbine types and generation capacities in the USA 2 determine fish mortality rates among turbine types and fish species and 3 examine relationships between physical forces similar to those encountered during fish turbine passage and fish injury and mortality We found that while Francis turbines generate 56  of all US hydropower and have the highest associated fish mortality of any turbine type these turbines are proportionally understudied compared to lesscommon and less injuryassociated Kaplan turbines particularly in the Pacific Northwest While juvenile salmonid species in actual or simulated Kaplan turbine conditions were the most commonly studied the highest mortality rates were reported from percid fishes passing through Francis turbines Future studies should focus on understanding which species are most atrisk to turbine passage injury and mortality and subsequently increasing the diversity of taxonomy and turbine types in evaluations of turbine injury and mortalityThis manuscript has been authored by UTBattelle LLC under Contract No DEAC0500OR22725 with the US Department of Energy The United States Government retains and the publisher by accepting the article for publication acknowledges that the United States Government retains a nonexclusive paidup irrevocable worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript or allow others to do so for United States Government purposes The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan http//energygov/downloads/doepublicaccessplanWe thank Alison Colotelo and Ryan McManamay for comments on this manuscript This study was funded by the US Department of Energy DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office Wind and Water Power Technologies Program through Oak Ridge National Laboratory which is managed by UTBattelle LLC for the DOE under contract DEAC0500OR22725 Opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect those of their employers

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