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Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) Fish Ecology FE - Watershed

Information

Project
Strait of Juan de Fuca IMW
Title
Movement and Survival of Juvenile Salmonids in Small Streams
Description
The Strait of Juan de Fuca Intensively Monitored Watershed (IMW) began in 2004 to test the watershed-scale response of steelhead and coho salmon to watershed restoration. The Strait IMW includes two treatment watersheds (East Twin River and Deep Creek) and one control watershed (West Twin River). Restoration treatments included LWD placement, road and culvert removal, off-channel habitat creation, and riparian planting. Monitoring of physical habitat as well as coho and steelhead parr densities began in 2004 using the EPA’s EMAP site selection and sampling protocols. Smolt and adult monitoring predates the IMW program and began as early as 1998 in some watersheds. Preliminary results suggest an increase in pool habitat and small increases in steelhead adults and smolts in East Twin River, as well as adult coho in Deep Creek. PIT tagging has revealed a large outmigration of age-0 coho in the fall that contributes to the adult return, stream swapping by juveniles, and varying return times for coho adults. Current research has answered a portion of our original questions and has raised new ones. Restoration treatments were completed fairly recently or are still in progress. As habitat typically does not respond immediately to treatment, additional years of monitoring are needed to determine watershed-scale fish response. In our January 2020 annual report, we focused on annual summaries of adult returns, end-of-summer parr estimates and associated apparent survival, and smolt outmigration for coho salmon and steelhead. In addition, we added several new analyses examining how density dependence correlated to fish size at tagging and survival. We also examined how fish size at tagging also correlates to survival. We included some preliminary results on otolith microchemistry of adult coho salmon in order to reinforce the result of how life history diversity contributes to overall population dynamics, and an adult returns analysis of PIT tagged fish to examine the same question. Moving forward, additional analysis of otoliths to validate PIT tag data and new restoration methods such as carcass or nutrient enhancement may be merited.

Data Sets

no data found

Research Themes

Ecosystem approach to improve management of marine resources
The California Current Large Marine Ecosystem, Puget Sound and the Columbia River Basin are home to a wide range of freshwater and marine resources that provide a wealth of ecosystem goods and services. Ensuring the resiliency and productivity of the California Current and Pacific Northwest ecosystems requires an integrated understanding of their structure, function, and vulnerability to increased human population growth in coastal communities and competing uses of coastal waterways and oceans. The NWFSC‘s approach to understanding these large ecosystems integrates studies across ecosystems (terrestrial, freshwater, and marine) and scientific disciplines to inform resource managers responsible for conserving marine resources.

Research Foci

Describe the interaction between human activities, particularly harvest of marine resources, and ecosystem function
Humans are an integral component of ecosystems. These ecosystems provide goods and services such as fish and seafood harvests, but these activities and others such as habitat alteration, pollution, and ocean acidification, can have strong impacts. Understanding the nature of these interactions will require observational and experimental studies aimed at identifying ecosystem-level responses to human activities, both individually and cumulatively, as well as human responses to ecosystem changes. Modeling spatial choices for harvesting and other human activities that are affected by ecosystem integrity, for example, can support a better understanding of the effects of ecosystembased management actions.

Keywords

IMW
Intensely monitored watershed
Oncorhynchus kisutch
coho
Oncorhynchus mykiss
steelhead
PIT tag
Passive Integrated Transponder tags
movement
movement
salmon
all salmonids
survival
Survival

Products

Advances in the population ecology of stream salmonids International Symposium, Gerona, Spain 2015.
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Bennett, T. R., P. Roni, K. Denton, M. McHenry, and R. Moses. 2015. Nomads no more: early juvenile Coho Salmon migrants contribute to the adult return. Ecology of Freshwater Fish 24(2): pp.264–275. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eff.12144/epdf
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Bennett, T., R. Wissmar, and P. Roni. 2011. Fall and spring emigration timing of juvenile coho salmon from East Twin River, Washington. Northwest Science 85:562–570. http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.3955/046.085.0406
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Ehinger, W. J., J. Hall, M. McHenry, K. Hanson, T. Bennett, M. Liermann, G. Pess, K. Krueger. 2016. Strait of Juan de Fuca IMW Annual Assessment. Prepared for the Salmon Funding Recovery Board’s Monitoring Panel. Olympia, WA.
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Hall, J. E., P. Roni, T. Bennett, J. McMillan, K. Hanson, G. Pess, R. Moses, M. McHenry, and W. Ehinger. 2015. Life history diversity of steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in two coastal Washington watersheds. 2015. American Fisheries Society, Portland, OR, August 17, 2015.
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Hall, J., M. McHenry, W. Ehinger, T. Bennett, K. Hanson, M. Liermann and G. Pess. 2018. Strait of Juan de Fuca Intensively Monitored Watersheds. 2017 Synthesis Report. Prepared for the Salmon Recovery Funding Board
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Hall, J., P. Roni, T. Bennett, J. McMillan, K. Hanson, R. Moses, M. McHenry, G. Pess, and W. Ehinger. 2016. Life history diversity of steelhead in two coastal Washington watersheds. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 145 (5):990–1005. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00028487.2016.1194893
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NOPLE (North Olympic Lead Entity for Salmon) 2013.
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Northwest Fisheries Science Center Watershed Program Open House 2010, 2013, 2015, 2017.
Northwest Fisheries Science Center Watershed Program Open House 2010, 2013, 2015, 2017.
Pess, G., McHenry, M., W. Ehinger, T. Bennett, K. Hanson and M. Liermann. 2020. Strait of Juan de Fuca Intensively Monitored Watersheds 2019 Annual Report. Prepared for the Salmon Recovery Funding Board
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Roni, P., T. R. Bennett, R. Holland, G. R. Pess, K. M. Hanson, R. Moses, M. McHenry, W. Ehinger, and J. Walter. 2012. Factors affecting migration timing, growth, and survival of juvenile Coho Salmon in two coastal Washington watersheds. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 141:890–906. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00028487.2012.675895
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Strait of Juan de Fuca Intensively Monitored Watershed Database
https://www.webapps.nwfsc.noaa.gov/apex/f?p=274:1:25521899047110:::::
Sylvander, B., R. Kang, R. Davidson, R. Marsicek, P. Roni, K. Hanson and T. Bennett. Data Management for an Intensively Monitored Watershed. Presented at the 2014 NWFSC Science Symposium and in 2015 at the AFS Symposium.
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Taxa

Species Oncorhynchus kisutch
Coho salmon, silver salmon
Species Oncorhynchus mykiss
rainbow trout, steelhead trout, syeelhead trout

People

Gabriel Brooks
Staff
George Pess
Supervisor
Karrie Hanson
Staff
Karrie Hanson
Staff
Martin Liermann
Staff
Todd Bennett
Principal Investigator
Todd Bennett
Principal Investigator