Collaborative: US-GLOBEC NEP Phase IIIa-CCS: Juvenile Salmon Habitat Utilization in the Northern California Current - Synthesis and Prediction

了解环境变化对鲑鱼栖息地质量的影响，对于评估太平洋西北部被列入名单的、受威胁的和濒危的鲑鱼种群的生长和生存至关重要。这项研究的目的是：1)确定加州北部洋流中奇努克幼体和鳕鱼栖息地的物理和生物学特征；2)开发一个空间上明确的基于个体的模型，将鲑鱼生长与栖息地质量联系起来；3)开发鲑鱼海洋栖息地指数，以提供鲑鱼种群丰度的年度预测，以及预测鲑鱼存活率年际变化的气候强迫生态变化指标。研究人员将确定在海洋栖息地的第一个夏天和初秋期间，奇努克和Coho幼体鲑鱼的分布和丰度(资源指标)以及生长和健康特征(性能指标)是否受到物理和生物海洋过程的相互影响，这些过程创造和调节了它们在加州海流中的栖息地。研究人员将结合和综合12年来关于幼年鲑鱼生态学的数据，这些数据来自a)2000年和2002年的GLOBEC加利福尼亚当前研究，b)1998年至2004年的博纳维尔电力管理局(BPA)研究，以及c)1981-1985年的皮尔西研究。这项研究提供的知识将提供给资源管理人员，以便在了解海洋状况变化的情况下确定鲑鱼种群的捕捞配额。作为哈特菲尔德海洋科学中心REU计划的一部分，对研究生的培训和本科生的参与被纳入该项目。

Understanding the effects of environmental variability on salmon habitat quality is important to evaluating salmon growth and survival of listed, threatened and endangered stocks of salmonids in the Pacific Northwest. The objectives of this research are to 1) identify the physical and biological characteristics of the habitats of juvenile Chinook and coho salmon in the northern California Current, 2) develop a spatially explicit individually-based model that links salmon growth to habitat quality, and 3) develop salmon ocean habitat indices to provide annual predictions of salmon stock abundance, and indicators of climate forced ecological changes that predict interannual variations in the survival of salmonids. The investigators will determine if distribution and abundance (resource metrics), and growth and health characteristics (performance metrics) of juvenile Chinook and coho salmon during the first summer and early fall of ocean residence are affected by the interaction of physical and biological oceanographic processes which create and modulate their habitat in the California Current. The investigators will combine and synthesize 12 years of data on the ecology of juvenile salmonids derived from a) the GLOBEC California Current studies in 2000 and 2002, b) Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) studies from 1998 through 2004, and c) the Pearcy studies of 1981-1985. The knowledge developed from this research will be provided to resource managers so that harvest quotas for salmonid stocks can be set within the context of knowledge of variability in ocean conditions. Training for a graduate student and involving undergraduate students as part of an REU program at the Hatfield Marine Science Center are incorporated into the project.