Effectiveness of different types of block ramps for fish upstream movement

Rivers are worldwide highly fragmented due to human impacts. This fragmentation has a negative effect on fish movement and dispersal. Many artificial barriers such as river bed sills and small weirs are nowadays replaced by block ramps in order to reestablish longitudinal connectivity for fish in rivers and streams. We studied the upstream passage of several fish species on different types of block ramps with slopes between 3.6 and 13.4 %. We conducted translocation experiments in the field based on mark-recapture and on the use of PIT-tags. Temporal movement patterns were observed by an instream antenna. Hydraulic and morphological characteristics of block ramps were measured and compared with fish passage efficiency. Our results clearly showed that upstream passage efficiency differs between fish species, size classes and block ramps. We observed that brown trout ( Salmo trutta fario ) performed better than bullhead ( Cottus gobio ) and several cyprinid species on the same block ramps. Passage efficiency of brown trout and chub ( Leuciscus cephalus ) was size-selective, with small-sized individuals being less successful. For brown trout, size-selectivity became more relevant with increasing slope of ramp. We conclude that block ramps with slopes of >5 % are ineffective for the small-sized cyprinid species and that vertical drops within step-pool ramps can hinder successful upstream passage of bullhead.