1. Anna Sturrock (UC Berkeley) Presentation to the Yuba RMT 06/07/16
Juvenile salmon life history diversity in the Yuba River
Anna Sturrock (UC Berkeley)
Presentation to the Yuba RMT
06/07/16

2. Salmon population viability
ABUNDANCE
POP GROWTH RATE
SPATIAL
STRUCTURE
Freshwater
Estuarine
Marine
DIVERSITY
HABITAT CAPACITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY
Graphic courtesy of S. Lindley and T. Williams

3. Life history diversity expression
Yearling
Smolt
Parr
Fry
Leave later
>75mm
55-75mm
<55mm
Leave earlier

4. Life history diversity expression
TAKE HOME MESSAGE: IN OUR FOCUS YEAR (outmigration year ) & MOST TRAPPING YEARS, JUVENILE CHINOOK SALMON MIGRATED PAST HALLWOOD BOULEVARD SMALL (<40mm FL) & EARLY (JAN/FEB)
75% percentile < 40mm
Campos & Massa (2010) Annual Rotary Screw Trapping Report
Lower Yuba River Accord, RMT (2013) Interim Monitoring & Evaluation Report

5. But who survives? 2009 escapement (2 yr olds)

6. Otolith isotopes 87Sr/86Sr ISOSCAPE
The natural “Black Box” or “Flight Recorder”
87Sr/86Sr ISOSCAPE
Hobson, K., Barnett-Johnson, R., and Cerling, T. (2009). Isoscapes: Understanding movement patterns and processes on earth through isotope mapping.

7. Otolith isotopes Decoding the flight recorder… Adult (ocean)
Juvenile (FW)
Maternal

8. Otolith isotopes Decoding the flight recorder…
LASER ABLATION MULTI COLLECTOR INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA MASS SPECTROMETER
(LA-MC-ICPMS)

9. Otolith isotopes
Decoding the flight recorder…

10. Otolith isotopes
Decoding the flight recorder…

11. How are we identifying Yuba-origin fish?
Typical method: Mean 87Sr/86Sr value of the otolith material laid down after yolk sac has been used up and exogenous feeding has begun  DFA
Sturrock & Johnson (2013) “Contribution of hatchery and natural origin Chinook salmon to the Lower Yuba River” Report to the Bay-Delta Sport Fishing Enhancement Stamp Program CDFW

12. How are we identifying Yuba-origin fish?
Typical method: Mean 87Sr/86Sr value of the otolith material laid down after yolk sac has been used up and exogenous feeding has begun  DFA
“Step method”: If 87Sr/86Sr values in the core prior to exogenous feeding >Yuba River value assume it’s a Yuba-origin fish (could misclassify American and Merced fry outmigrants that have strayed to the Yuba).
Sturrock & Johnson (2013) “Contribution of hatchery and natural origin Chinook salmon to the Lower Yuba River” Report to the Bay-Delta Sport Fishing Enhancement Stamp Program CDFW

13. How are we identifying Yuba-origin fish?
In support :
1. “Step” observed in known Yuba-origin juvenile caught in the Hallwood Blvd RST but no other ref juveniles or CWT fish.
2. “Step” only observed in adults returning to the American and Yuba Rivers (characterized by high river values).
Sturrock & Johnson (2013) “Contribution of hatchery and natural origin Chinook salmon to the Lower Yuba River” Report to the Bay-Delta Sport Fishing Enhancement Stamp Program CDFW

14. Movement reconstructions
Smolt outmigrant
YOLK
American
Ocean
Delta
Lower Sac
To show you a little more clearly how this actually looks, here is an isotopic profile measured across the otolith of one adult that left the American River as a smolt.
[NOT TO SCALE!]

15. Movement reconstructions
Smolt outmigrant
YOLK
American
Ocean
Delta
Lower Sac
To show you a little more clearly how this actually looks, here is an isotopic profile measured across the otolith of one adult that left the American River as a smolt.
[NOT TO SCALE!]

16. Movement reconstructions
Smolt outmigrant
YOLK
American
Ocean
Delta
Lower Sac
To show you a little more clearly how this actually looks, here is an isotopic profile measured across the otolith of one adult that left the American River as a smolt.
[NOT TO SCALE!]

17. Movement reconstructions
Fry outmigrant
YOLK
American
Ocean
Delta
Lower Sac
To show you a little more clearly how this actually looks, here is an isotopic profile measured across the otolith of one adult that left the American River as a fry and reared in the Delta.
[NOT TO SCALE!]

18. Movement reconstructions
Fry outmigrant
YOLK
American
Ocean
Delta
Lower Sac
To show you a little more clearly how this actually looks, here is an isotopic profile measured across the otolith of one adult that left the American River as a fry and reared in the Delta.
[NOT TO SCALE!]

19. Movement reconstructions
Fry outmigrant
YOLK
American
Ocean
Delta
Lower Sac
To show you a little more clearly how this actually looks, here is an isotopic profile measured across the otolith of one adult that left the American River as a fry and reared in the Delta.
[NOT TO SCALE!]

20. Distance from core (μm)
Movement reconstructions
Size at natal exit
Smolt/yearling outmigrant Fry outmigrant
Natal Natal
Non-natal
Ocean
Yuba
Delta
Lower Sac
Otolith Sr87/Sr86
Here are a couple of examples of profiles from a smolt and a fry outmigrant, where they remained in the Yuba River for variable lengths of time. And what is neat is that the otolith size has a tight positive relationship with fish size, so we can convert these otolith distances into size at exit.
Distance from core (μm)
(α fork length)

21. Movement reconstructions
Size at “natal” exit
Fry Parr Smolt
Size at outmigration of adults that returned to the American (AME = natural origin; NIH = Nimbus Hatchery), Yuba (YUB), Stanislaus (STA) and Tuolumne (TUO) Rivers.
The AME & NIH data are from a draft report written with CFS & SWF, representing unaged fish from escapement 2014 (i.e. could include some 2011 and 2013 outmigrants).

22. Movement reconstructions
Size at “natal” exit
Take home message:
Fry matter!
…especially in the Yuba & American R.
But is this pattern because fry strategy more prevalent in the Sac basin, or because fry have better survival in the Sac basin/N delta?
And have all these Yuba fry actually left the Yuba?!
FRY SURVIVORS!
Size at outmigration of adults that returned to the American (AME = natural origin; NIH = Nimbus Hatchery), Yuba (YUB), Stanislaus (STA) and Tuolumne (TUO) Rivers.
The AME & NIH data are from a draft report written with CFS & SWF, representing unaged fish from escapement 2014 (i.e. could include some 2011 and 2013 outmigrants).

23. Movement reconstructions
Size at “natal” exit
WHERE ARE THEY REARING??

24. Habitat use reconstructions
Movement reconstructions
Habitat use reconstructions
DEER AND/OR DRY CREEK IDENTIFIED AS REARING HABITATS

25. Habitat use reconstructions
DEER AND/OR DRY CREEK IDENTIFIED AS REARING HABITATS
BUT WHERE IS “HABITAT X”?

26. Clams (Corbicula fluminia) as passive chemical samplers

27. Clams (Corbicula fluminia) as passive chemical samplers
Feather
Yuba
Yuba
Dry Creek
Dry Creek
Yuba

28. Clams (Corbicula fluminia) as passive chemical samplers
Dry Creek mouth
Dry Creek mouth
Dry Creek-Yuba confluence
Dry Creek-Yuba confluence

29. Habitat use reconstructions

30. Habitat use reconstructions
i.e. lots of overlap but some fish DEFINITELY reared in Dry/Deer Creek

31. Supported by data on juvenile habitat preferences
TAKE HOME MESSAGE: SMALL JUVENILES OBSERVED IN THE YUBA RIVER WERE CLUSTERED IN THE UPPER REACHES IN CHANNEL MARGINS & LOWER WATER VELOCITIES (i.e. TRIBUTARY MOUTHS WOULD BE IDEAL HABITATS)

32. FL at exit & time (FL diff) in non-natal habitat
Juvenile strategies
Large fry & parr
FL at exit & time (FL diff) in non-natal habitat
Take home message:
If you leave the Yuba mainstem small, you still need to rear somewhere else before leaving FW if you want to survive!
Small fry
FL at FW exit

33. Where to from here?
Other otolith markers (e.g. Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca) to discriminate between Yuba tributaries, Feather and it’s tributaries, Sacramento & Delta?
Integrating otolith reconstructions with RST data to estimate survival rates by migratory phenotype.
Increased juvenile sampling in the tributaries (and Goldfields?) to identify key rearing habitats.
Comparing patterns with other populations,
runs, WYT.

34. Acknowledgements And thank you for listening!
The Yuba RMT for supporting this research and having me here today!
Rachel Johnson, George Whitman, Justin Glessner, Mike Miller (UC Davis)
Sacramento Water Forum & Cramer Fish Sciences for letting me show the LAR data
All the carcass survey teams & RST operators
(especially Duane Massa & Casey Campos – PSMFC)
Water sampling and coordination (especially Gary Reedy & Marianne Pott - SYRCL)
JD Wikert, Carl Mesick, Eric Hopson, Doug Threloff (USFWS)
Tim Heyne, Gretchen Murphy, Crystal Sinclair, Shelly Schubert and all the scale readers and carcass survey teams at CDFW
Stephanie Carlson (UC Berkeley)
Jason Wyman (14 Black Poppies) for his wonderful salmon graphic.
And thank you for listening!

35. Movement reconstructions
Size at “natal” exit
Yuba rearing fish that migrated out quickly (left), slowly (middle), or as a yearling (right)
Fish that left the mainstem as fry and reared in Dry or Deer creek

36. Movement reconstructions
Size at “natal” exit
Fish that reared in the mouth of Deer/Dry Creek (too high for FEA & final dip ruling out Delta)
Fry outmigrants that may have reared in the Delta