The River in Glen Canyon. Epiphytic diatoms and other algae colonizing submerged macrophytes and firm substrata has constituted the primary food-base for aquatic consumers in the tailwaters of the Colorado River ecosystem downstream from Glen Canyon Dam prior to 2000.
Major Ecological Changes. Since 1996 the extent and variation in daily flow fluctuations and other dam operation policies combined with a multi-year drought have resulted in a marked compositional transition from that former near-monoculture of Cladophora to a dense and dynamic assemblage of multiple macrophyte taxa: Chara cf. vulgaris, Potamogeton cf. pectinatus, Zannichellia palustris, Cladophora glomerata, and a dense bed of the aquatic moss Fontinalis hypnoides.
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What is happening? Since 2020 we have been conducting river surveys and field experiments along the 25-km reach to assess the possible effects of these physcial and ecological shifts to the epiphytic / benthic algae assemblages in the river.
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Project Goals
Vision
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