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Long Term Monitoring
Monitoring habitat, growth and survival of juvenile Chinook and steelhead in Big Creek and Rush Creek
Dr. Beth Sanderson
Northwest NOAA Fisheries Service
National Marine Fisheries Services
Seattle, WA
Research funded by Bonneville Power Administration and NOAA Fisheries.
2002 to Present
Collaborators: Dr. Kate Macneale,
Chau Tran, Holly Coe, Dr. Peter Kiffney
"Importance of biotic and abiotic features of salmon habitat:
Implications for juvenile Chinook and steelhead growth and survival"
Beth Sanderson and NOAA Fisheries colleagues have been studying physical, chemical, and biological features of roughly 20 streams in the Salmon River basin, annually since 2002. Big and Rush Creeks are two of our study streams. We are examining reach-scale functional relationships between abiotic and biotic factors in sites where fish survival has been and continues to be measured (Steve Achord and colleagues). By measuring nutrient concentrations, biomass, isotopic signatures and production of algae and macroinvertebrates (i.e., fish food), and density, growth and survival of juvenile salmon among streams, we can estimate whether streams with more productive food webs provide better conditions for juvenile salmon and steelhead.
The large-scale nature of this project and the multiple years of data (2002 – 2006), will allow us to evaluate thoroughly how the biotic and abiotic conditions of salmonid habitats affect juvenile fish growth and survival. These data and relationships will demonstrate how stream food web monitoring can provide valuable insights into conditions for Chinook and steelhead, and will be useful to managers as they decide how best to allocate resources for restoration and recovery.  
Joanna Bybee, a Five College intern from Amherst College, and Vija Pelekis, an undergraduate intern at University of Washington, measure stream discharge using tennis ball and flow meter techniques. (left) Inside, researchers process water chemistry samples, periphyton samples and invertebrates collections. (right)
 
Holly Coe processes stream invertebrates collected from Big Creek. (left) Physical habitat characterizations include quantifying factors such as channel width, gradient, substrate size, riparian vegetation, water velocity and water depth. (right)
 
Volunteer intern, Maya Groner, collects stream invertibrates using a Hess sampler in fast water. (left) Hong-Nhi Do, an American Fisheries Society high school Hutton Scholar, collects periphyton from stream rocks for stable isotope analyses in 2005. (right)
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