The Bristol Bay watershed in southwestern Alaska is home to one of the largest wild salmon runs in the world, as well as one of the largest undeveloped copper deposits in the world. For a consortium of non-government organizations (NGOs), Abt Associates’ staff led a project to assess the combined impacts of climate change and mineral development on salmon habitat quality in southern Alaska.

We assembled relevant hydrologic, geochemical and climate change datasets, supervised the development of a hydrologic model of the affected watershed, and provided briefings to our NGO clients, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and other relevant parties. Our work culminated in a peer-reviewed publication focused on the climate change impacts on stream temperature, hydrologic variability, and resulting salmon habitat quality in this globally important fishery.

Read the journal article:
“Hydrologic Alterations from Climate Change Inform Assessment of Ecological Risk to Pacific Salmon in Bristol Bay, Alaska”