@article{83a93d5bb5ae476a872bb96d16ab4c56,
title = "Designing river flows to improve food security futures in the Lower Mekong Basin",
abstract = "Rivers provide unrivaled opportunity for clean energy via hydropower, but little is known about the potential impact of dam-building on the food security these rivers provide. In tropical rivers, rainfall drives a periodic flood pulse fueling fish production and delivering nutrition to more than 150 million people worldwide. Hydropower will modulate this flood pulse, thereby threatening food security. We identified variance components of the Mekong River flood pulse that predict yield in one of the largest freshwater fisheries in the world. We used these variance components to design an algorithm for a managed hydrograph to explore future yields. This algorithm mimics attributes of discharge variance that drive fishery yield: prolonged low flows followed by a short flood pulse. Designed flows increased yield by a factor of 3.7 relative to historical hydrology. Managing desired components of discharge variance will lead to greater efficiency in the Lower Mekong Basin food system.",
author = "John Sabo and A. Ruhi and Holtgrieve, {G. W.} and V. Elliott and Arias, {M. E.} and Ngor, {Peng Bun} and R{\"a}s{\"a}nen, {T. A.} and So Nam",
note = "Funding Information: Supported by MacArthur Foundation award 100717 and NSF grant DEB-1541694 (G.W.H.); NSF grant CBET-1204478 (J.L.S.); NSF grant EAR-1740042 (J.L.S. and G.W.H.); the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) with funding from NSF grant DBI-1052875 (A.R.); MAA–Ja Vesitekniikan Tuki (T.A.R.); and MacArthur Foundation awards 100718 and 15-108455-000-CSD to Conservation International. All authors thank the Mekong River Commission and the Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute (IFReDI) of Cambodia for access to data, and C. Phen, T. Cochrane, M. Cooperman, C. Costello, T. Farrell, L. Hannah, L. Kauffman, K. McCann, E. Moody, T. Pool, N. Rooney, and S. Lim for helpful comments on the design of the research or previous versions of the manuscript. Illustrations were created by S. Deviche (Fig. 1) and M. Northrop (Fig. 6), Arizona State University. Data used in this analysis are presented in the supplementary materials and are available in raw form by request from the Mekong River Commission by writing to S.N. (sonam@mrcmekong.org). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017, American Association for the Advancement of Science. All rights reserved.",
year = "2017",
month = dec,
day = "8",
doi = "10.1126/science.aao1053",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "358",
journal = "Science",
issn = "0036-8075",
publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science",
number = "6368",
}