This dataset includes two folders of spatial data associated with the Ganaraska River. The folder Ganaraska_River includes five files: 1) The portion of the Ontario Integrated Hydrology Dataset Enchanced Watercouse in the river watershed, 2) the location of the study sites, 3) the delineated valley segments on the river mainstem, 4) the valley segment boundary locations, and 5) the watershed outline boundary. The folder Ganaraska_SiteCAT includes the upstream catchment area for each study site.

This dataset includes two folders of spatial data associated with the Grand River. The folder Grand_River includes five files: 1) The portion of the Ontario Integrated Hydrology Dataset Enchanced Watercouse in the river watershed, 2) the location of the study sites, 3) the delineated valley segments on the river mainstem, 4) the valley segment boundary locations, and 5) the watershed outline boundary. The folder Grand_SiteCAT includes the upstream catchment area for each study site.

This dataset includes two folders of spatial data associated with the Trent River. The folder Trent_River includes five files: 1) The portion of the Ontario Integrated Hydrology Dataset Enchanced Watercouse in the river watershed, 2) the location of the study sites, 3) the delineated valley segments on the river mainstem, 4) the valley segment boundary locations, and 5) the watershed outline boundary. The folder Trent_SiteCAT includes the upstream catchment area for each study site.

This dataset includes two folders of spatial data associated with the Trent River. The folder Trent_River includes five files: 1) The portion of the Ontario Integrated Hydrology Dataset Enchanced Watercouse in the river watershed, 2) the location of the study sites, 3) the delineated valley segments on the river mainstem, 4) the valley segment boundary locations, and 5) the watershed outline boundary. The folder Trent_SiteCAT includes the upstream catchment area for each study site.

This dataset includes two folders of spatial data associated with the Petawawa River. The folder Petawawa_River includes five files: 1) The portion of the Ontario Integrated Hydrology Dataset Enchanced Watercouse in the river watershed, 2) the location of the study sites, 3) the delineated valley segments on the river mainstem, 4) the valley segment boundary locations, and 5) the watershed outline boundary. The folder Petawawa_SiteCAT includes the upstream catchment area for each study site.

This dataset includes two folders of spatial data associated with the Petawawa River. The folder Petawawa_River includes five files: 1) The portion of the Ontario Integrated Hydrology Dataset Enchanced Watercouse in the river watershed, 2) the location of the study sites, 3) the delineated valley segments on the river mainstem, 4) the valley segment boundary locations, and 5) the watershed outline boundary. The folder Petawawa_SiteCAT includes the upstream catchment area for each study site.

This dataset includes information about valley segment and catchment summaries, valley characteristics, instream habitat, and fish for valley segments, sites, and transects along four river mainstems in Ontario, Canada. Moving west to east, the rivers include the Grand River which ends in Lake Erie at Port Maitland, the Ganaraska River which ends in Lake Ontario at Port Hope, the Trent River which ends in the Bay of Quinte at Trenton, and the Petawawa River which ends in the Ottawa River at Petawawa. These rivers vary in natural character, anthropogenic development, and fish assemblages. Riverine sites along the mainstems of all four rivers included a total of one hundred and twelve sites. Sampling on the Grand, Trent, and Petawawa Rivers focused on non-wadeable lower river mainstems, whereas all sites on the Ganaraska River mainstem were wadeable and incorporated a wider range of stream sizes. Sites were sampled between 1997 and 2001, with many sites sampled in multiple years. The study design for the Grand, Trent, and Petawawa Rivers include a hierarchical design where data collection was nested at three spatial scales -- shoreline and channel transect data are nested within sites, and sites are nested within valley segments. In the Ganaraska River, data collection was by site and nested within valley segments. A complementary set of shapefiles for each river supports these tabular data and provides items needed to map watersheds, valley segments, and sites, and to calculate additional variables for sites and site catchments. The metadata specific to these spatial data is associated with the shapefiles and is not described here.

This file contains a representation of 3rd order watersheds developed for the 1:50,000 BC Watershed Atlas with each watershed polygon coded for occurrence of freshwater fish species (including anadromous salmon in their freshwater stages). The initial fish species codes for presence/absence in each watershed were derived from an GIS overlay of fish species occurrences within broadly defined fish regions for BC. This overlay of fish ranges describes the occurrences of fish species in 30 regions throughout the province. These broad species ranges were derived from McPhail and Carveth's 'Key to Freshwater Fish of BC' and refined further based on the most current expert opinion. Coding for watershed polygons based on this expert opinion was originally: 0= out of species range; 4 = core range; 5= introduced range; 6= peripheral range; 9= estuarine polygons only. A further refinement of watershed fish species coding was developed from actual observations of fish species in the lakes and rivers of British Columbia. This data comes from a number of fish inventory sources. Watersheds with known records of occurrence for each fish species were consequently recoded as such: 4, 5, 6, 9 now equal '1' if a museum record, and, 4, 5, 6, 9 now equal '2' for a less reliable record, and, 0 now equals '8'. for an out-of range record

The use of streamflow simulations from the Vflo model and subsequent calculation of streamflow metrics to investigate flow-ecology relationships may be hindered by our inability to accurately model flow variability and extreme flows of the arid Great Plains. The Canadian River and other rivers in the Great Plains tend to have highly variable flows and harsh environmental conditions. The combination of these environmental conditions makes semi-arid and arid regions difficult to represent with a hydrologic model, especially extreme events. In some cases, overestimating flows may be acceptable to water managers (e.g., vulnerability of infrastructures), but could greatly affect estimates of fish species persistence. To address incidences where poor model performance affected metrics derived from Vflo simulations, we suggest three possible options. 1) Restrict flow-ecology relationships to the mainstem of the Canadian River below Lake Meredith, 2) Restrict assessments to streamflow data aggregated at a monthly time step (although typically, this does not match ecological processes well); 3) Focus on streamflow metrics with a high prediction accuracy (e.g., magnitude, timing and duration at some locations). To maximize the number of potential explanatory variables and survey locations available in the Canadian River basin for the development of flow-ecology response models and minimize bias and uncertainty, a combination of these approaches is likely warranted. To move forward on flow-ecology relationships with valid statistical power, the compiled fish data (see processing steps) is best combined with available gage data to improve the development of ecological relationships.

The use of streamflow simulations from the Vflo model and subsequent calculation of streamflow metrics to investigate flow-ecology relationships may be hindered by our inability to accurately model flow variability and extreme flows of the arid Great Plains. The Canadian River and other rivers in the Great Plains tend to have highly variable flows and harsh environmental conditions. The combination of these environmental conditions makes semi-arid and arid regions difficult to represent with a hydrologic model, especially extreme events. In some cases, overestimating flows may be acceptable to water managers (e.g., vulnerability of infrastructures), but could greatly affect estimates of fish species persistence. To address incidences where poor model performance affected metrics derived from Vflo simulations, we suggest three possible options. 1) Restrict flow-ecology relationships to the mainstem of the Canadian River below Lake Meredith, 2) Restrict assessments to streamflow data aggregated at a monthly time step (although typically, this does not match ecological processes well); 3) Focus on streamflow metrics with a high prediction accuracy (e.g., magnitude, timing and duration at some locations). To maximize the number of potential explanatory variables and survey locations available in the Canadian River basin for the development of flow-ecology response models and minimize bias and uncertainty, a combination of these approaches is likely warranted. To move forward on flow-ecology relationships with valid statistical power, the compiled fish data (see processing steps) is best combined with available gage data to improve the development of ecological relationships.