The PNAMP Fish Monitoring Work Group (FMWG), meets quarterly to update participants on current FMWG tasks, share expertise through presentations on innovative fish monitoring, and provides you with opportunities to engage regional managers and experts. These meetings are an opportune time to discuss tasks and get input from members on where they see importance or could use facilitated support. The FMWG is also interested in your work; if you would like to present your innovative fish monitoring ideas or any recent publications at a future meeting please contact Meg Dethloff, mdethloff@usgs.gov

Tech Talk: WATCH RECORDING

Integrated Population Modeling of Grande Ronde Spring Chinook Salmon: Linking Dynamics and Habitat to Monitoring Data via SSMs

Ben Staton, a Quantitative Fisheries Scientist covered some integration modeling he does with Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. Salmon populations in the Columbia River basin are monitored throughout their life cycle, however many analyses that might inform policy decisions involve analyses of single or consecutive life stages. Taking this “separated” approach to life cycle analyses has several pros and cons, but an important detriment is the hindrance of uncovering linkages, correlations, feedbacks, and delayed effects among outcomes occurring at various scales. We developed an integrated statistical life cycle model for Grande Ronde spring Chinook salmon that simultaneously fits to multiple sources of information generated by routine monitoring programs including PIT tag-derived survival estimates, screw trap passage estimates, and adult return abundance. We simultaneously estimate the historical population dynamics of two juvenile life history strategies and two rearing origin types for each of four spawning populations. In doing so, we have uncovered patterns of density-dependent growth and growth-mediated survival for freshwater juveniles, as well as nontrivial correlations in process noise among populations at many life stages (i.e., better/poorer-than-expected years coincide among populations). Further, the model estimates the effect of weighted usable habitat on parr rearing capacity, which will be useful for modeling effects of habitat restoration. The presentation will give a high-level overview of the modeling framework, the types of data it fits to, the processes it attempts to capture, and some preliminary findings.

Agenda

• 10:00 – Welcome and Introductions
• 10:05 – Task Updates
• 10:20 – Tech Talk
• 11:10 – Q&A
• 11:30 – Adjourn

Missed a previous FMWG meeting? Check out our YouTube page for presentations or task meetings.