Melting Glaciers will produce new salmon habitat, study suggests

In a new study involving researchers from the University of Montana’s Flathead Lake Biological Station, scientists discovered warming trends may offer one silver lining to climate change, if only for a while: the retreat of glaciers in the Pacific mountains of western North America potentially could produce more than 6,000 kilometers of new Pacific salmon habitat by the year 2100.

“Climate change alters the shape and dynamics of stream ecosystems,” said Diane Whited, a Flathead Lake Biological Station scientist whose role in the study focused on spatial modeling of potentially accessible stream habitat once glaciers have receded...