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and larger backwaters available for the nearshore ecology project to evaluate, a HFE could be conducted <br />should the sediment trigger be reached before October 2011, when fieldwork for the nearshore ecology <br />project is scheduled to end. We propose consulting with Reclamation on this issue in early 2010 after <br />the results of the March 2008 HFE have been reported and the effects of experiment on backwater <br />habitat are known. <br />Ongoing and Proposed Studies <br />Objectives <br />Collectively, the studies we describe in the next section will evaluate the components and linkages of <br />the Colorado River ecosystem that managers are most interested in evaluating with respect to stable <br />discharge (see especially daily flow variation and nearshore habitat stability components of fig. 3). <br />These studies are as follows: <br />1. Nearshore ecology project (see appendix A for the complete project description) <br />2. Stock assessment of Grand Canyon native fish <br />3. Aquatic food base monitoring <br />4. Rainbow trout monitoring <br />5. Supplemental water - temperature data collection <br />6. Ecosystem modeling efforts <br />Projects 1 through 5 emphasize process -level measurements because previous studies focusing on static <br />measurements, with the exception of HFEs, have had minimal success detecting impacts of short- <br />duration flow experiments (that is, fall steady flow experiments of 2005, see Ralston and others, 2007). <br />Finally, under Project 6, ecosystem - modeling efforts will incorporate much of these data and allow for <br />comparison with different flow scenarios. <br />IF <br />