Effects of hydraulic cues in barrier environments on fish navigation downstream of dams

Understanding how hydraulic cues in the barrier environment affect fish navigation is critical to fish migration in dammed rivers. However, most of the current research on the effects of hydraulic cues on fish navigation focuses on the effects of a single hydraulic parameter on fish migration and usually ignores fish sensory perception and swimming ability. This study presents an effective approach that combines a computational fluid dynamics model of a river with a model of fish behaviour to elucidate the effects of hydraulic cues in the barrier environment on fish migration paths and strategies by simulating the fish's perception of flow direction and their regulation of multiple hydraulic parameters. Four release scenarios for the dam were reviewed and it was determined that the modelled fish movements realistically reflected actual observations. In various scenarios, the target fish (Schizothorax chongi) managed to move upstream to the tailrace downstream of the dam, despite the hydraulic barrier created by the mainstem area of the river; they overcame this obstacle by exploiting low-velocity zones on both sides of the mainstem and in the river's boundary layer. During upstream movement, the target fish preferred areas with flow velocities between 0.7 and 1.0 m/s and a turbulent kinetic energy of less than 0.3 m