Distribution and Habitat Use of Juvenile Burbot and ...

Distribution and Habitat Use of Juvenile Burbot and Other Fishes in a Tributary of the Kootenai River Zachary S. Beard

Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Fish and Wildlife Sciences, University of Idaho

Michael C. Quist

U.S. Geological Survey-Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Department of Fish and Wildlife Sciences, University of Idaho

Ryan S. Hardy and T.J. Ross Idaho Department of Fish and Game

 Gadidae

 Circumpolar

distribution  Lentic and lotic  Top predator

 High

conservation concern  Eurasia • Only 4 of 27 countries reported “secure”

 United

States

• 8 of 25 states reported “secure”

Stapanian et al. (2010)

 Traditionally

supported subsistence, recreational, and commercial fisheries  Decline since 1959  Increased rate of decline in the 1970s  Fisheries closed in early 1990s

 Conservation

aquaculture

• Aquaculture Research Institute

 ~63,000 released since 2009 • Twin Rivers Hatchery  125,000 per year by 2019

 Small

tributary releases

 Passive

integrated transponder tag array  Fish assemblage  Habitat associations

 Describe

species and habitat associations of

 Evaluate

movement, distribution, and status of

Burbot Burbot

BC WA

ID

MT

Bonners Ferry

Deep Creek

Kootenai River

660 640 Snow Creek

Bonners Ferry

Elevation (m)

620 PIT tag antenna

600

Ruby Creek 580

560 Browns Creek

540 Fall Creek 520

Naples

500 McArthur Lake

0

5

10

Trail Creek 15 20

RKM

25

30

35

40

 Reach-scale

fish and habitat sampling

 Delineated

five equal segments  Randomly selected 25 reaches  Delineated reaches  Identified macrohabitats

 Single-pass

DC electrofishing

• Macrohabitats sampled separately

 Total

length  Weight

Habitat Sampling •Measure wetted stream width •Depth •Current velocity •Substrate particle size •Canopy cover •Bank characteristics •Distance to anthropogenic disturbance •Instream cover

 Species

richness  NMDS ordinations • Bray-Curtis • Presence-absence

 Logistic •

AIC

regression

RS S LN D TS C LS S BK T RB T NP M PK S TE N YE P BB T LM B M W F LK C BB H BL G

Number of individuals 1800

1600

600

400

200

0

660

10 9

640

8

Elevation (m)

7 600

6

580

5 4

560

3 540 2 520

1

500

0 0

5

10

15

20

RKM

25

30

35

40

Species richness (S )

620

0.6 BBT

0.4 0.2

TEN

MWF

NMDS2

0.0

RBT LND

TSC

-0.2

BKT LSSRSS PKS

YEP

-0.4

LKC

BBH LMB

NPM

-0.6

Lower reaches -0.8

Middle reaches BLG

-1.0

Upper reaches

-1.2 -1.0

-0.8

-0.6

-0.4

-0.2

0.0

0.2

NMDS1 Stress = 0.128

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

Model

K

AIC

Depth + SubstrateCoarse + DistStockLoc

4

22.62

ΔAIC

0.00

wi 0.83

ΔAIC

wi

Model

K

AIC

CoverVeg + VelMean

3

160.21

0.00

0.48

VelMean

2

160.86

0.65

0.34

Model

K

AIC

Pool

3

112.28

ΔAIC

0.00

wi 0.96

ΔAIC

wi

Model

K

AIC

Depth

2

160.21

0.00

0.40

Depth + CanopyCover

3

161.78

1.57

0.18

Depth + CoverWoody

3

162.20

1.99

0.15

ΔAIC

wi

Model

K

AIC

CoverVeg

2

96.81

0.00

0.72

Depth + CoverVeg

3

98.75

1.94

0.27

ΔAIC

wi

Model

K

AIC

Depth + CoverVeg

3

163.60

0.00

0.65

CoverVeg

2

165.02

1.42

0.32

 Reach-scale  Distribution

fish and habitat sampling

 Five

half-duplex PIT tag antennas  Pass through design Twinax cable

Tuner box Reader, datalogger, 12 V batteries

Top wire

Bottom wire

Rebar stakes & duckbill anchors

October May Stocking Antenna – July 2014 Locations 2015 – February 2015     

October 30th 1,500 age-0 Burbot 100 age-1 Burbot 8 age-2 Burbot 8 age-4 Burbot

21Detections 6 Dectections Detection 61Burbot 2 Burbot

83 48Dectections 6 Detections Detections 12 37Burbot 6 Burbot Burbot 237 1 15 Detections Dectections Detections 1 Burbot 11 62 Burbot 183,822 11,251 7 Detections Detections 149 Burbot 1,164 Burbot 1 Burbot 2 Detections 33 Detections 25Burbot 2 Burbot

 Fish

assemblage structure

• Patterns associated with gradient?

 Movement

 Distribution

 Jeff

Johnson  Phil Branigan  Marika Dobos  Numerous IDFG staff  Jon Firehammer  ARI