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Colorado pikeminnow and razorback sucker include long stretches of river required for <br /> migration corridors and larval fish drift. <br /> Concurrently with designating critical habitat, the Service identified primary constituent <br /> elements (PCEs) of the habitat,which are identical for all four endangered fish species. PCEs <br /> are physical or biological features essential to the conservation of a species for which its <br /> designated or proposed critical habitat is based on, such as: space for individual and population <br /> growth, and for normal behavior; food, water, air, light, minerals, or other nutritional or <br /> physiological requirements; cover or shelter; sites for breeding,reproduction, rearing of <br /> offspring, germination, or seed dispersal; and habitats that are protected from disturbance or are <br /> representative of the species historic geographic and ecological distribution. The PCEs of <br /> critical habitat are the same for each of the four endangered fish within the Colorado River system. <br /> The PCEs include: <br /> Water: a quantity of water of sufficient quality (i.e.,temperature, dissolved oxygen, lack of <br /> contaminants,turbidity, etc.)that is delivered to a specific location in accordance with a <br /> hydrologic regime that is required for the particular life stage for the species; <br /> Physical habitat: areas of the Colorado River system that are inhabited or potentially habitable <br /> for spawning, feeding,rearing, as a nursery, or corridors between these areas, including oxbows, <br /> backwaters, and other areas in the 100-year floodplain which when inundated provide access to <br /> spawning, nursery, feeding, and rearing habitats; and, <br /> Biological environment: adequate food supply and ecologically appropriate levels of predation <br /> and competition. <br /> 2.6 Climate Change <br /> The EPA (2015)has predicted that Colorado will experience the following general trends related <br /> to climate change (summarized from OSMRE EA, p. 4-19): <br /> • The region will experience warmer temperatures with less snowfall. <br /> • Temperatures are expected to increase more in winter than in summer, more at night than in <br /> the day, and more in the mountains than at lower elevations. <br /> • Earlier snowmelt will result in earlier peak stream flows,weeks before the peak needs of <br /> ranchers, farmers, recreationalist, and others. In late summer, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs <br /> will be drier. <br /> • More frequent, more severe, and possibly longer-lasting droughts will occur. <br /> • Drier conditions will reduce the range and health of ponderosa and lodge pole pine forests, <br /> and increase the susceptibility to fire. <br /> Climate change has and will occur and affect endangered species and their habitat over the <br /> duration of the Proposed Action and beyond,whether or not the Proposed Action occurs. <br /> 32 <br />