Research about Flint River

USGS2025

Using DNA barcoding to evaluate freshwater mussel and fish-host relationships in the Flint River (Georgia, USA)

Freshwater mussels have a unique life history in which larval mussels (glochidia) act as obligate parasites to fish hosts. Host selectivity may be species specific, and identification of host fish is a critical step in conservation planning for individual mussel species. The Flint River harbors ~23% of the freshwater mussel (order Unionida) diversity in the state of Georgia, USA. Nine species in the basin are state or federally listed, and local diversity is threatened by shifting hydrologic conditions, increasing habitat loss, and sedimentation. However, knowledge on host species is lacking for nearly 40% of mussel species in the Flint River, limiting the efforts of conservation managers. In this study, we assessed the use of host fish by mussels by identifying the species of naturally encysted mussel larvae and transformed juveniles found on wild-caught fishes. Infested fishes were collected in the summers of 2021 and 2022 and held in laboratory conditions. Glochidia and juvenile mussels were collected as they excised from live hosts and were identified by DNA barcoding with the cytochrome oxidase c subunit I locus. Twenty-eight unique mussel–host relationships were identified, 27 of which were considered novel when cross-referenced to the existing mussel–host databases and peer-reviewed literature. Our data build upon knowledge of host use in unionids and further demonstrate the importance of understanding patterns in wild host use.

Georgia↗

USGS2012

Linking river management to species conservation using dynamic landscape scale models

Efforts to conserve stream and river biota could benefit from tools that allow managers to evaluate landscape-scale changes in species distributions in response to water management decisions. We present a framework and methods for integrating hydrology, geographic context and metapopulation processes to simulate effects of changes in streamflow on fish occupancy dynamics across a landscape of interconnected stream segments. We illustrate this approach using a 482 km 2 catchment in the southeastern US supporting 50 or more stream fish species. A spatially distributed, deterministic and physically based hydrologic model is used to simulate daily streamflow for sub-basins composing the catchment. We use geographic data to characterize stream segments with respect to channel size, confinement, position and connectedness within the stream network. Simulated streamflow dynamics are then applied to model fish metapopulation dynamics in stream segments, using hypothesized effects of streamflow magnitude and variability on population processes, conditioned by channel characteristics. The resulting time series simulate spatially explicit, annual changes in species occurrences or assemblage metrics (e.g. species richness) across the catchment as outcomes of management scenarios. Sensitivity analyses using alternative, plausible links between streamflow components and metapopulation processes, or allowing for alternative modes of fish dispersal, demonstrate large effects of ecological uncertainty on model outcomes and highlight needed research and monitoring. Nonetheless, with uncertainties explicitly acknowledged, dynamic, landscape-scale simulations may prove useful for quantitatively comparing river management alternatives with respect to species conservation.

Georgia↗

USGS2008

Evaluation of floodplain modifications to reduce the effect of floods using a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model of the Flint River at Albany, Georgia

Potential flow characteristics of future flooding along a 4.8-mile reach of the Flint River in Albany, Georgia, were simulated using recent digital-elevation-model data and the U.S. Geological Survey finite-element surface-water modeling system for two-dimensional flow in the horizontal plane (FESWMS-2DH). The model was run at four water-surface altitudes at the Flint River at Albany streamgage (02352500): 181.5-foot (ft) altitude with a flow of 61,100 cubic feet per second (ft 3 /s), 184.5-ft altitude with a flow of 75,400 ft 3 /s, 187.5-ft altitude with a flow of 91,700 ft 3 /s, and 192.5-ft altitude with a flow of 123,000 ft 3 /s. The model was run to measure changes in inundated areas and water-surface altitudes for eight scenarios of possible modifications to the 4.8-mile reach on the Flint River. The eight scenarios include removing a human-made peninsula located downstream from Oglethorpe Boulevard, increasing the opening under the Oakridge Drive bridge, adding culverts to the east Oakridge Drive bridge approach, adding culverts to the east and west Oakridge Drive bridge approaches, adding an overflow across the oxbow north of Oakridge Drive, making the overflow into a channel, removing the Oakridge Drive bridge, and adding a combination of an oxbow overflow and culverts on both Oakridge Drive bridge approaches. The modeled inundation and water-surface altitude changes were mapped for use in evaluating the river modifications. The most effective scenario at reducing inundated area was the combination scenario. At the 187.5-ft altitude, the inundated area decreased from 4.24 square miles to 4.00 square miles. The remove-peninsula scenario was the least effective with a reduction in inundated area of less than 0.01 square miles. In all scenarios, the inundated area reduction increased with water-surface altitude, peaking at the 187.5-ft altitude. The inundated area reduction then decreased at the gage altitude of 192.5 ft.

Georgia↗

USGS2007

Two-Dimensional Flood-Inundation Model of the Flint River at Albany, Georgia

Potential flow characteristics of future flooding along a 4.8-mile reach of the Flint River in Albany, Georgia, were simulated using recent digital-elevation-model data and the U.S. Geological Survey finite-element surface-water modeling system for two-dimensional flow in the horizontal plane (FESWMS-2DH). Simulated inundated areas, in 1-foot (ft) increments, were created for water-surface altitudes at the Flint River at Albany streamgage (02352500) from 192.5-ft altitude with a flow of 123,000 cubic feet per second (ft3/s) to 179.5-ft altitude with a flow of 52,500 ft3/s. The model was calibrated to match actual floods during July 1994 and March 2005 and Federal Emergency Management Administration floodplain maps. Continuity checks of selected stream profiles indicate the area near the Oakridge Drive bridge had lower velocities than other areas of the Flint River, which contributed to a rise in the flood-surface profile. The modeled inundated areas were mapped onto monochrome orthophoto imagery for use in planning for future floods. As part of a cooperative effort, the U.S. Geological Survey, the City of Albany, and Dougherty County, Georgia, conducted this study.

Georgia↗

USGS1999

Reproductive biology and juvenile recruitment of the shinyrayed pocketbook, Lampsilis subangulata (Bivalvia: Unionidae) in the Gulf Coastal Plain

The reproductive biology, glochidial morphology and recruitment of the federally endangered shinyrayed pocketbook, Lampsilis subangulata , were studied from May 1995 to July 1996 in the Flint River system, Georgia. Gravid female L. subangulata were found nine months of the year. On 19 May 1995, a L. subangulata was discovered releasing a superconglutinate, the first record confirming that this species used this specialized reproductive strategy. Superconglutinate release occurred from late May to mid-July in water temperatures ranging from 20.0 to 23.5 C. Laboratory experiments indicated that two fish species served as primary hosts, the spotted bass ( Micropterus punctulatus ) and largemouth bass ( M. salmoides ). Secondary host fish included the eastern mosquitofish ( Gambusia holbrooki ), guppy ( Poecilia reticulata ) and bluegill ( Lepomis macrochirus ). The glochidial morphology of L. subangulata was similar to other lampsiline species. Using quantitative survey methods, no evidence of recent juvenile recruitment was found in the largest known extant L. subangulata population.

Georgia↗

USGS1982

Time of travel of the Flint River, Utah Dam to highway M-13, Michigan, August 4-8, 1981

Tracing of rhodamine WT dye has provided time-of-travel data for waste-load allocation studies of a 42.8-mile reach of the Flint River at low flow. A discharge equaled or exceeded about 90 percent of the time was measured at Grand Traverse Street in Flint before dye injection. Dye was injected at two locations in Flint--at Utah Dam and at Grand Traverse Street, From Utah Dam to Grand Traverse Street, the mean velocity of flow was about 0.1 foot per second; time-of-travel was 35.3 hours. From Grand Traverse Street to Highway M-13, mean velocity was about 0.7 foot per second; time-of-travel was 78.8 hours. Time-of-travel for the reach between Utah Dam and Highway M-13 was thus 114 hours.

Michigan↗

USGS1972

A study of the Flint River, Michigan, as it relates to low-flow augmentation

One of the uses of the Flint River is dilution of waste-water. Population and industrial growth in the Flint area hah placed new demands on the stream and emphasized the need for an analysis of the surface water resources of the basin. This report describes selected streamflow characteristics of the Flint River and its tributaries, and presents draft-storage relations for the river basin. Flow characteristics for 17 sites show that the 7-day 2-year low flow ranges from 0 to 0.17 cfs (cubic feet per second) per square mile. Draft-storage relations for the basin show that existing storage, if fully utilized, could, on an average, provide a minimum discharge at Montrose of 160 cfs in 19 out of 20 years. The discharge, in conjunction with water diverted from Lake Huron to the Flint River through the Detroit and Flint water systems (about 60 cfs in 1971), indicates that low flows would seldom be less than about 200 cfs at Montrose. Diversions from the basin for irrigation may reduce low flows by about 12 cfs. Ground-water sources offer small potential for development of large supplies of water for streamflow augmentation, although wells in the glacial deposits may provide a supplemental source of water at some locations.

Michigan↗