Effects of Lake Surface Elevation on Shoreline‐Spawning Lost River Suckers

Burdick, Summer M.; Hewitt, David A.; Rasmussen, J. E.; Hayes, Brian S.; Janney, Eric C.; Harris, Alta C.

doi:10.1080/02755947.2015.1017124

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Samples of Lost River and Shortnose suckers are tagged each year with PIT tags to gather information on their behavior and survival following release (Janney et al 2008;Hewitt and Hayes 2013;Burdick et al 2015;Hewitt et al 2015). The PIT tags allow specific information to be linked to individual fish, such as species, size, age-class (adult, juvenile), and release location.…”

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confidence: 99%

Colonial Waterbird Predation on Lost River and Shortnose Suckers in the Upper Klamath Basin

Evans

Hewitt

Payton

et al. 2016

N American J Fish Manag

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We evaluated predation on Lost River Suckers Deltistes luxatus and Shortnose Suckers Chasmistes brevirostris by American white pelicans Pelecanus erythrorhynchos and double‐crested cormorants Phalacrocorax auritus nesting at mixed‐species colonies in the Upper Klamath Basin of Oregon and California during 2009–2014. Predation was evaluated by recovering (detecting) PIT tags from tagged fish on bird colonies and calculating minimum predation rates, as the percentage of available suckers consumed, adjusted for PIT tag detection probabilities but not deposition probabilities (i.e., probability an egested tag was deposited on‐ or off‐colony). Results indicate that impacts of avian predation varied by sucker species, age‐class (adult, juvenile), bird colony location, and year, demonstrating dynamic predator–prey interactions. Tagged suckers ranging in size from 72 to 730 mm were susceptible to cormorant or pelican predation; all but the largest Lost River Suckers were susceptible to bird predation. Minimum predation rate estimates ranged annually from <0.1% to 4.6% of the available PIT‐tagged Lost River Suckers and from <0.1% to 4.2% of the available Shortnose Suckers, and predation rates were consistently higher on suckers in Clear Lake Reservoir, California, than on suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. There was evidence that bird predation on juvenile suckers (species unknown) in Upper Klamath Lake was higher than on adult suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, where minimum predation rates ranged annually from 5.7% to 8.4% of available juveniles. Results suggest that avian predation is a factor limiting the recovery of populations of Lost River and Shortnose suckers, particularly juvenile suckers in Upper Klamath Lake and adult suckers in Clear Lake Reservoir. Additional research is needed to measure predator‐specific PIT tag deposition probabilities (which, based on other published studies, could increase predation rates presented herein by a factor of roughly 2.0) and to better understand biotic and abiotic factors that regulate sucker susceptibility to bird predation. Received January 19, 2016; accepted June 25, 2016 Published online October 7, 2016

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confidence: 99%

Colonial Waterbird Predation on Lost River and Shortnose Suckers in the Upper Klamath Basin

Evans

Hewitt

Payton

et al. 2016

N American J Fish Manag

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“…Even though the spawning season spanned multiple months, captures and encounters often occurred over much shorter time periods, with individual fish being fairly consistent from year to year in the relative times at which they joined the spawning aggregations (Burdick et al. 2015). All detections are classified without error, and tags are not overlooked when re‐encountered.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sex affects p because males stay at spawning areas longer than females, thus increasing their probability of being encountered (Burdick et al. 2015). Time was important for p because of annual differences in sampling intensity and environmental effects on the condition of spawning habitats.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water and Endangered Fish in the Klamath River Basin: Do Upper Klamath Lake Surface Elevation and Water Quality Affect Adult Lost River and Shortnose Sucker Survival?

Krause

Janney

Burdick

et al. 2022

N American J Fish Manag

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In the western United States, water allocation decisions often incorporate the needs of endangered fish. In the Klamath River basin, an understanding of temporal variation in annual survival rates of Shortnose Suckers Chasmistes brevirostris and Lost River Suckers Deltistes luxatus and their relation to environmental drivers is critical to water management and sucker recovery. Extinction risk is high for these fish because most individuals in the populations are approaching their maximum life span and recruitment of new fish into the adult populations has never exceeded mortality losses in the past 22 years. We used a time series of mark–recapture data from the years 1999–2021 to analyze the relationship between lake level, water quality covariates, and survival of adult Shortnose Suckers and two spawning populations of Lost River Suckers in Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. We compared competing model hypotheses in a maximum likelihood framework using Akaike's information criterion and then ran the top environmental covariates in a Bayesian framework to estimate how much of the variation in survival was explained by these covariates as compared to random variation. The complementary analyses found almost unequivocal support for our base model without environmental covariates. Estimated adult sucker survival was high across the time series and consistent with sucker life history (mean annual survival = 0.82–0.91). This suggests that adult suckers were generally robust to interannual variation in lake levels as well as consistently poor water quality within the years of our data set. Recovery time is limited, as a declining survival trend for adult suckers in recent years may be due to the onset of senescence. The successful recovery of suckers in Upper Klamath Lake may rely on shifting research from the causes of adult mortality and its relationship with lake surface elevation to the causes of poor recruitment into adult populations.

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“…For the purposes of this study, we defined populations as groups of individuals that consistently spawn in the same location. Individuals from the two Lost River Sucker populations reside within the same lake; however, very few individuals switch from one spawning location to the other (Burdick et al 2015). We chose 50 y as a relevant time reference on the basis of the revised Recovery Plan for these species, which concluded that recovery was likely to require 30-50 y (USFWS 2013).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Population Viability of Endangered Lost River Sucker and Shortnose Sucker and the Effects of Assisted Rearing

Rasmussen

Childress

2018

Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management

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The Lost River Sucker Deltistes luxatus and Shortnose Sucker Chasmistes brevirostris are two narrowly endemic fish species in the upper Klamath Basin of southern Oregon and northern California. Both species have been federally listed as endangered pursuant to the U.S. Endangered Species Act since 1988 because of dramatic declines in abundance and distribution. In Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, both species have only recruited a single cohort to the adult populations since that time. Most individuals in this population are at or older than the expected life span of the species. Consequently, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Klamath Tribes have initiated assisted rearing efforts to stabilize the population. However, it is unclear how quickly these populations might become extirpated and how assisted rearing might alter population trajectories. We modeled the potential for extinction and recovery of the populations of endangered Lost River Sucker and Shortnose Sucker in Upper Klamath Lake. We simulated population trajectories over the next 50 y with a stochastic population viability assessment approach. Projections indicate that if population trajectories do not change, the Shortnose Sucker population may decline by 78% to number < 5,000 in 10 y and become completely extirpated within the next 30 (18.6% probability) to 40 y (99% probability). The two Lost River Sucker populations have a greater likelihood to remain extant after 50 y, with only 1% probability of extinction given our scenarios and assumptions, but the populations are likely to number fewer than 1,000 individuals. Our results also suggest that rearing of Klamath Lake sucker species in a controlled environment for augmenting the natural population will be effective in reducing extirpation probabilities over the next 50 y if survival to recruitment can be achieved, but a long-term effort of at least 40 y will be required. The necessity of long-term augmentation to ensure population persistence in the absence of natural recruitment underscores the urgent need to determine and address the causes of recruitment failure in the wild.

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Effects of Lake Surface Elevation on Shoreline‐Spawning Lost River Suckers

Cited by 11 publications

References 17 publications

Colonial Waterbird Predation on Lost River and Shortnose Suckers in the Upper Klamath Basin

Colonial Waterbird Predation on Lost River and Shortnose Suckers in the Upper Klamath Basin

Water and Endangered Fish in the Klamath River Basin: Do Upper Klamath Lake Surface Elevation and Water Quality Affect Adult Lost River and Shortnose Sucker Survival?

Population Viability of Endangered Lost River Sucker and Shortnose Sucker and the Effects of Assisted Rearing

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