Investigating Juvenile Life History and Maternal Run Timing of Chehalis River Spring and Fall Chinook Salmon using Otolith Chemistry *Lance Campbell, Andrew Claiborne, Sara Ashcraft Mara Zimmerman and Curt Holt Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Fish Program, Olympia, WA *Presenting author (email: campblac@dfw.wa.gov)
Investigating Juvenile Life History and Maternal Run Timing of Chehalis River Spring and Fall Chinook Salmon using Otolith Chemistry *Lance Campbell, Andrew Claiborne, Sara Ashcraft Mara Zimmerman and Curt Holt Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Fish Program, Olympia, WA *Presenting author (email: campblac@dfw.wa.gov)
Funding/Support/Collaboration Provided by: Washington State Legislature in Second Engrossed House Bill 1115 (Chapter 3, Laws of 2015) Chehalis Tribe Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Oregon State Universities Keck Collabratory for Mass Spectrometry
https://wdfw.wa.gov/publications/01985/
Juvenile Chinook salmon migration timing Figure courtesy: Wild Salmon Evaluation and Production Unit (WDFW) Skagit 2005-2012 Nisqually 2009-2013 Fry (<45mm) Parr (>60mm) Green 2005-2013 Dungeness 2005 2013
Juvenile Life History and Maternal Run Timing of Chehalis River Spring and Fall Chinook Salmon 1. Evaluate the successful juvenile life histories of naturally reproducing fall and spring Chinook salmon (Fry/Parr/Yearlings) 2. Linkage between life history expression, habitat proximity, and environmental conditions 3. Provide an independent estimate of maternal run timing (spring or fall) for individuals that were classified as spring or fall in the field
Spawning from Van Winkle Creek to Upper Chehalis Chehalis River Basin Juvenile life history related to distance from the estuary Map by Dale Gombert
Chehalis River Basin Summer stream temps Life history expression related to stream temperature Warm = 19 C to 20 C Cool = 14 C to 16 C Map by Dale Gombert
Methods: 1.) Fish size/otolith size relationship 2.) Elemental analysis (LA-ICPMS) Sr:Ca 3.) Relationship between salinity and Sr 4.) Maternal signal low Sr Spring & high Sr Fall related to length of fw residence 180 160 140 120 Fork Length (mm) 100 80 60 40 20 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1200 Otolith radius (um)
PARR & SPRING Sr:Ca milmol mol -1 0 61 122 184 245 306 367 428 490 551 612 673 734 796 857 918 979 1040 1102 1163 0 61 122 184 245 306 367 428 490 551 612 673 734 796 857 918 979 1040 1102 1219 1280 1342 1403 1464 1525 1586 1648 1709 1770 1831 1892 1954 FRY & FALL Methods: A Maternal signal (core) Laser transect start Ocean growth Fry < 60 mm FL Parr > 60 mm FL 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 B Maternal signal (core) Freshwater growth SkookumChuck 2016 Fall Chinook Ocean growth Estuary/Ocean entry 41 mm FL Otolith Distance (µm) 3.5 Yearling = scale and otolith annuli Sr:Ca milmol mol -1 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 C Skookumchuck River 2016 Spring Chinook Maternal signal (core) Ocean growth 0.5 Freshwater growth Estuary/Ocean entry 83 mm FL 0 Otolith Distance (µm)
Life History Results Fry = 0-24% Highest Skookumchuk Wynoochee Black Parr = 80-100% Highest Upper Chehalis Newaukum Back calculated fork length @ estuary/ocean entry (mm) 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 VanWinkle rm 1.4 n=15 Return Year 2016 Wynoochee rm 13 n=23 Satsop rm 20 n=38 SkookumChuck rm 67 n=56 Newaukum rm 75 n=39 Upper Chehalis rm 92 n=54 Return Year 2015 Black rm 47 n=21 SkookumChuck rm 67 n=29 Upper Chehalis rm 92 n=29
Life History Results Call: lm(formula = sizeoe ~ Dis + Year + Temp, data = Che) Coefficients Distance: p = 0.00547 ** Year: p = 0.01852 * Temp: p = 0.22920 Proportion of Fry (< 60 mm) 0.20 0.15 0.10 0.05 0.00 Return Year 2016 0 20 40 60 80 100 Tributary Distance to Estuary (RM) R =.75 P =0.09 Distance from estuary/ocean and year explain juvenile size at estuary/ocean entry categorical measure of basin temperate did not Size at Estuary/Ocean Entry (mm) 88 86 84 82 80 78 76 74 72 0 20 40 60 80 100 Tributary Distance to Estuary (RM) R =.98 P <0.01
Individual Fish Spring Chinook Results Spring Chinook in Skookumchuck Newaukum and Upper Chehalis 2.5 2.0 A Return Year 2015 n=79 Black River Skookumchuck River Upper Chehalis River 5% Spring Chinook n = 16 25% fry, 75% parr, no yearlings Sr:Ca (mmol mol -1 ) 1.5 1.0 0.5 Fall Run Core Freshwater Spring Run Core 13% 0.0 3.0 B Return Year 2016 n=223 Lk Aberdeen Satsop River Wynoochee River Individual Fish Skookumchuck River Newaukum River Upper Chehalis River 2.5 1% Sr:Ca (mmol mol -1 ) 2.0 1.5 1.0 10% 0.5 0.0
Results Spring Chinook Run Year 2015 Otolith Maternal Run Timing Run Year 2016 Otolith Maternal Run Timing Field Determination Run Timing Fall Spring Fall 54 14 Spring 4 7 Fall 213 5 Spring 1 5 33%-50% agreement Spring Chinook otolith and field calls 93-99% agreement Fall Chinook otolith and field calls
Results Spring Chinook Wait! there's a catch. Higher strontium in upper tributaries Sr isotope analysis may solve this Otolith freshwater Sr:Ca(mmol:mol) 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 VanWinkle 2016 Wynoochee 2016 Satsop 2016 Black 2015 SkookumChuck 2015 SkookumChuck 2016 Newaukum 2016 Upper Chehalis 2015 Upper Chehalis 2016
Discussion Small fry sized fish that use Grays Harbor estuary are surviving and returning in adult population in a meaningful and significant way (~25%) in some populations* Direct link of fish size/life history to habitat proximity If otolith data is accurate suggests number of Spring Chinook over estimated
Fin
Special Thanks to: Chehalis Tribal fisheries staff: Bill Secena, Hector Canales, Todd Delamater, Shawn Ortivez, and Grant Shortman The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife: John McCulloch, Eric Walther, Ray Bissonnette, Jonathan Hansen, Brian Barry, Chris Mattoon, Danielle Williams, Jesse Guindon, Nick Vanbuskirk, Frank Staller, Brent Trim, Oliver Crew, Lyle Jennings, Henry Kei, Ryan Zimmer, Amy Edwards, Katie Kennedy, Craig Loften, Garrett Moulton, Kim Figlar-Barnes and Megan Brady, Dale Gombert Lake Aberdeen Hatchery and Satsop Springs Pond: Keith Burns, Steve Franks, and Daniel Hampton The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Fish Ageing and Otolith Laboratories: Anna Hildebrandt, Lang Nguyen, Stefanie Karney, John Sneva, Lucinda Morrow, Dana Anderson, Jeff Grimm, Eugene Sandborn.
Median size at ocean/estuary (Fl-mm) Size at estuary/ocean (StDev) Spring Chinook (Y/N) Distance to estuary (Rkm) Fry Parr Temp Tributary n (<60mm) (>60mm) profile Vanwinkle (LAH) 2016 15 75.04 17.83 0.13 0.87 N warm 2.25 Wynoochee 2016 23 80.80 17.15 0.17 0.83 N warm 20.92 Satsop 2016 38 77.83 13.39 0.08 0.92 N cool 32.51 Skookumchuck2016 56 87.41 17.05 0.13 0.88 Y cool 107.83 Newaukum 2016 39 88.09 12.08 0.05 0.95 Y cool 121.34 SF Chehalis 2016 1 79.78 1.00 warm Upper Chehalis River 2016 54 86.23 8.27 0.00 1.00 N warm 147.58 Black2015 21 80.12 19.90 0.24 0.76 N warm 75.64 SkookumChuck2015 29 72.32 18.60 0.24 0.76 Y cool 107.83 Upper Chehalis River 2015 29 79.61 14.51 0.03 0.97 Y warm 147.58