Science activity

Science activity #52576, updated 3 October 2023

Science for adaptive management of juvenile spring-run Chinook salmon in the San Joaquin River

Description / purpose

Spring-run Chinook salmon rehabilitation efforts are intensifying on the San Joaquin River. Over the last three years, UC Davis has successfully tracked movement, behavior, reach-specific survival, and route selection for reintroduced juvenile spring-run Chinook salmon in this ecosystem. In 2019, information on salmon tracking was combined with state-of-art habitat (fast limnological automated measurements or “FLAMe”) and physiological (e.g. fish condition, survival and transcriptomic) approaches. Results from this work are ongoing but have yielded actionable information on key habitats and management strategies for promoting salmon life-cycles in the San Joaquin River and central Delta. Now UC Davis will further explore promising recent findings. First, the analysis of an additional year of juvenile salmon tracking will occur to glean more survival information across different water year conditions. This information would be married with expanded FLAMe surveys in space and time along with a second year of physiological assays using caged fish. UC Davis will also evaluate the ‘transport effect’ on salmon, in an attempt to explain consistently high losses of JSATS-tagged salmon through the restoration area. Numerous other synergies exist with new and ongoing telemetry work that will be benefitted by a continuation of this work. The goal is to provide actionable science, and open access data, with a high potential to facilitate adaptive management in the San Joaquin River and central Delta.

Linked science activities

None specified

Activity status

  • 1 Awarded / Initiating (2020)
  • 2 In progress / Ongoing
  • 3 Complete

Funding summary

Total allocated funding: $694,036

Label Value
Contract # or labor code 20028
Implementing organization University of California - Davis [UC Davis]
Funding organization Delta Stewardship Council
Funding Source Delta Stewardship Council - General Fund
Date of award 2020-10-09
Date of fiscal year-end 2023-10-31
Total award amount $694,036
State type of obligation Contract
Federal type of obligation Not provided
Reimbursability Not provided
Procurement mechanism Contracted competitive or direct award

Location

Subbasins
Delta regions

Geographic tags

None specified

Products and outputs

Type Title Description Views
File Agosta, A., C.L. Hause, G.P. Singer, N.A. Fangue, N.A, and A.L. Rypel. 2021. San Joaquin River Spring-run Chinook Salmon Survival. UC Davis’s Wildlife, Fish & Conservation Biology seminar. UC Davis’s Wildlife, Fish & Conservation Biology 0
File Gross, E.S., R.C. Holleman, M.J. Thomas, N.A. Fangue, and A.L. Rypel. 2021. Development and evaluation of a Chinook salmon smolt swimming behavior model. Water 13(20) 2904 Hydrologic currents and swimming behavior influenc 0
File Hause, C.L., G.P. Singer, R.A. Buchanan, D.E. Cocherell, N.A. Fangue, and A.L. Rypel. 2022. Survival of a threatened salmon is linked to spatial variability in river conditions. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences. Extirpation of the Central Valley spring-run Chino 1
File Peterson, A., C.L. Hause, G.P. Singer, R.A. Buchanan, N.A. Fangue, and A.L. Rypel. 2022. Investigation of a Mortality hotspot for Emigrating Chinook Salmon Smolts in the California Delta. Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society, Spokane WA USA. Annual Meeting of the American Fisheries Society, 0
News Rypel, A.L., G. Singer, and N.A. Fangue. 2021. Science of an underdog: the improbable comeback of spring-run Chinook salmon in the San Joaquin River. California Waterblog California Waterblog 1