Reclamation Information Sharing Environment (RISE)

The two items of this record include historical aerial photography of the Lake Powell delta assembled from scanned analog film scenes, created for S&T Project 20052. This investigation focused on large-scale vegetation patterns related to the physical formation of delta-backwater landforms and their dynamic response to short- and long-term fluctuations in reservoir pool elevations. Hybrid plant communities have established, expanding available habitat at the reservoirs we examined. Some of this new habitat appears to be of high quality with an abundance of native species, whereas other reservoirs appear to support primarily non-native species. Further, sustained, climate-driven declines in pool elevations at Lake Powell, Lake Mead, and Elephant Butte Reservoir are initiating new vegetation establishment processes and subjecting established vegetation to stress and mortality. Given the expanding presence of invasive, non-native species across ecosystems world-wide, water management actions are needed that would favor the establishment and persistence of native species and improve plant community responses to projected climate warming.