Post on 16-Feb-2021
Restoration of Chinook Salmon in the San Joaquin River: Challenges in Times of Drought
Steve BlumenshineProf. of BiologyCSU‐Fresno
Funding: US Bureau of Reclamation, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Fresno Regional Foundation, CSU‐Fresno rGrants, CSU‐WRPI/USDA
usatoday.com nytimes.com
• San Joaquin River Restoration Program
• Is it worth it?
• How can it work? (what do salmon need?)
• Early life history stagesoFloodplains: Eat & growoAvoid being eatenoAnalytical approachesBioenergeticsStable isotope ratios (C,N,O)
Seminar Outline
The San Joaquin River Restoration Program (SJRRP) is a comprehensive long‐term effort to restore flows to the San Joaquin River from Friant Dam to the confluence of Merced River and restore a self‐sustaining Chinook salmon fishery in the river while reducing or avoiding adverse water supply impacts from restoration flows.
restoresjr.net
friendsoftheriver.net
switchboard.nrdc.org
The San Joaquin River Restoration Program (SJRRP) is a comprehensive long‐term effort to restore flows to the San Joaquin River from Friant Dam to the confluence of Merced River and restore a self‐sustaining Chinook salmon fishery in the river while reducing or avoiding adverse water supply impacts from restoration flows.
fishbio.org
news.ucsc.edu
• San Joaquin River Restoration Program
• Is it worth it? (news coverage)
• How can it work? (what do salmon need?)
• Early life history stagesoFloodplains: Eat & growoAvoid being eatenoAnalytical approachesBioenergeticsStable isotope ratios (C,N,O)
Seminar Outline
A prominent article published in the journal Nature in 1997: "The value of the World's ecosystem services and natural capital"
"Biosphere I (the Earth) is a very efficient, least‐cost provider of human life‐support systems“ (Costanza et al. 1997).
Estimated the annual value of nature at $33 trillion
Comparatively, the global gross national product (human‐created value) was only around $18 trillion annually.
A recent update to the article takes into account the multitude of studies on the function of ecosystems that have taken place since 1997, as well as the loss and destruction of ecosystems that has occurred, and estimates the value of nature is actually closer to $143 trillion in today's dollars vs $75 trillion in GDP. (Costanza et al. 2014).
www.nhstateparks.org
helplerphoto.com
The Value of Nature & Ecosystem Services?
http://fishbio.com/field‐notes/the‐fish‐report/whats‐salmon‐worth
Data sources: Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC), the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS),California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW); metrics provided by a state economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service.
Jobs, sales, gross regional product, fees/licenses, boat maintenance, fuel, bait/tackle, food/beverage, travel costs, lodging, and any other associated goods and services used by recreational anglers.
A new set of satellite images released by NASA shows the dramatic loss of water storage in the Central Valley due to California's long term drought. According to research by NASA's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Team, the Sacramento and San Joaquin River basins together lost 12 million acre feet a year between 2011 and 2014, largely due to agricultural groundwater pumping. The findings were published in a recent edition of Science
Credit NASA GRACE
www.seymoursalmon.com
Chinook Salmon Restoration:San Joaquin River, CA
• San Joaquin River Restoration Program
• Is it worth it?
• How can it work? (what do salmon need?)
• Early life history stagesoEat & growoAvoid being eatenoAnalytical approachesBioenergeticsStable isotope ratios (C,N,O)
Seminar Outline
galleryhip.com
What do salmon need?
Juvenile Salmonids:What are the problems?
• Hatchery Raised Fish: Not sustainable
• Predation: It’s dangerous out there…
• Floodplain use: Need somewhere safe to grow quickly…
• San Joaquin River Restoration Program
• Is it worth it?
• How can it work? (what do salmon need?)
• Early life history stagesoFloodplains: Eat & growoAvoid being eatenoAnalytical approachesBioenergeticsStable isotope ratios (C,N,O)
Seminar Outline
Scout Island , May 2014
River Floodplain Habitats: A little goes a long way….
Juvenile salmon using restored habitat at the Lower Tolt Floodplain Reconnection Project (King Co. WA; Apr 30 2014) (Vimeo)
Floodplain Benefits:• ↓ Preda on Risk(?)• Hiding places• Too shallow for preds• ↓ Mortality
watershedco.com
thesalmonguy.com
Still shot of high‐definition video taken behind a high‐density structure treatment. Circles demonstrate three juveniles using the structure as a velocity break
Floodplain Benefits:• ↓ Velocity
• Shallow water• Vertical structure• ↓ Energy demand
J. Merz – Cramer Fish Sciences & UC‐Santa Cruz
Jeffres et al. 2008
Floodplain Benefits:• ↑ Water temperature
• Slower moving• ↑ Light penetration• ↑Metabolic efficiency
Floodplain
River
Bellmore et al. 2013
Flooplain Benefits:• ↑ Prey produc on
• Import from terrestrial• ↑ Primary production• ↑ Energy resources
Ricefield Floodplain
RiverMainstem
Rice Fields as Surrogates to Natural Floodplain Habitat for Juvenile Salmon: Preliminary Results from the Yolo Bypass 2013
LiDAR ImagingExample SJR Floodplain Habitat
2012
2013
2014
Dec 30 Apr 14
Mar 16Water Release from
Fria
nt Dam
(CFS)
Critical Low Flow Conditions: April 5, 2014Friant Dam: 140 CFS This location: 4 CFS
Google Earth
SJRRP Projects: “Justify your existence…”Existing paradigm: Juvenile Chinook require
floodplain habitat Alternative Hypothesis: How would JCS do in the absence of floodplain habitat?
Bioenergetics of feeding
strategies of juvenile Chinook
salmon in a drought
Do juvenile Chinook salmon use compensatory feeding strategies to grow more efficiently during drought conditions?
Question
www.latimes.com
2014 Drought Implications: How to adult fish spawn in the restoration area?
San Joaquin River Restoration Program Release of Fall Run Chinook Salmon
‘Trap’
‘Haul’
Release
367 Adults(DNA sequenced& radio tagged)
73 ‘redds’
Redd Distribution – Nov 12, 2013‐Jan 3, 2014
Redd Site Selection by Female ChinookSelected vs. Non‐Selected
Variables:‐Depth of Redd‐Depth of Nearest Pool‐Distance to Undercut bank‐Distance to Overhanging Vegetation‐Distance from Redd to Pool‐Riffle Crest
Why do female Chinook salmon choose to spawn in specific locations?
Redd Distribution – Nov 12, 2013‐Jan 3, 2014
=Juvenile Collection Sites
Don Portz, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation fish biologist, checks on a fish containment box set up at the end of a weir to capture young chinook salmon, in the San Joaquin River, at Scout Island in Fresno, April 2, 2014. JOHN WALKER —Fresno Bee Staff Photo |
2393 juveniles captured
Juvenile Capture & Transport Traps checked daily
Growth Rate?‐Mass,Length,….Age?
We obtained 273 for analysis
Titus et al 2004
Otolith: Fish ear bone
Age (d)
SCOUT_IS
LEDGER_IS
50 60 70 80 90 100 110Day of Year (2014)
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
Mea
n Le
ngthWarmer & Slower
Colder & Faster
San Joaquin River: 2014 Mainstem Juveniles
Don Portz, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation fish biologist, checks on a fish containment box set up at the end of a weir to capture young chinook salmon, in the San Joaquin River, at Scout Island in Fresno, April 2, 2014. JOHN WALKER —Fresno Bee Staff Photo |
2393 juveniles captured
Juvenile Capture & Transport Traps checked daily
Growth Rate?‐Mass,Length,….Age?
We obtained 273 for analysis
Food Sources?‐Diet samples; 13C:12C, 15N:14N‐Muscle vs. Liver tissue
Parentage & Birth Site? (Sequencing by C. Garza, NMFS)‐Were some females more ‘fit’ than others?‐Did fitness vary among redd sites? (redd ‘clumps’)
What about the predators?
Experimental Release of Radio‐Tagged Juvenile Chinook Salmon(USFWS)
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100Co
unt o
f Prey Type
s in Diets
2014 Diets: (F,M,A) All Spp
2
Crayfish + Juvenile Chinook Salmon in Diet Sample
Largemouth Bass320mm/510g
Undergraduate rGrant Awardees:
Is the production of invertebrate prey limited by riverbed substrate?
Karen Boortz
Julio Perez
0 100 200 3000
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Cou
nt
River Bed Particle Size (mm)
UPRIVER ‐ Lost Lake ParkDOWNRIVER ‐ Skaggs Bridge
Undergraduate rGrant Awardees:
Is the production of invertebrate prey limited by riverbed substrate?
Karen Boortz
Julio Perez
Cheyenne Hefley
Jensen Verhalen
Spatial & temporal variation in SJR water δ18O and fish movement
Kendall, C., and T. Coplen. 2001
SJR Water Release
SJR Water Temperature
Soto, D. X., L. I. Wassenaar, and K. A. Hobson. 2013. Stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in aquatic food webs are tracers of diet and provenance. Functional Ecology 27: 535‐543
Can δ18O be used as a tracer in this system?
Acknowledgements:
U.S. Fish & Wildlife ServiceMichelle Workman, Jerrad Goodell, Zachary Jackson
CSU‐Fresno Aquatic Ecology Lab MembersKyle Griffiths, James Pearson, Taylor Spaulding, Amina LodhiTravis Bybee, Julio Perez, Carl Temple, Steven Jones,Karen Boortz, Cheyenne Hefley, Jensen Verhalen, Matthew CavalettoHS Students: Vinisha Prajapati, Jessica Cha
Don PortzUSBoR
Matt BigelowCA F&W
Rene HeneryTrout Unlim/Univ. Nevada
Joe MerzCramer Fish Sci/UC‐Santa Cruz
U.S. Bureau of ReclamationErin Rice, Magaret Giddings
Questions?
Field & Lab Images: Taylor Spaulding