A Genetic Monitoring And Evaluation Program For Supplemented Populations Of Salmon And Steelhead In The Snake River Basin PDF Download

This progress report offers a summary of genetic monitoring and evaluation research related to artificial propagation of Chinook salmon and steelhead in the Snake River basin. Our principal goal has been to characterize the relative (and net) reproductive success of hatchery fish spawning in the wild in multiple sub-basins. We address a critical uncertainty identified in essentially all tribal, state, and federal recovery planning efforts. Beyond simple description of those patterns of differential reproductive success, we seek to understand the biotic and abiotic factors that contribute to our observations, including genetic and environmental elements, and the real time effects of hatchery reform. We adopt two fundamentally different approaches that capture processes operating at different geographic scales. Our tier 2 design monitors changes in gene frequency through time in hatchery and wild populations. These studies monitor spatial and temporal genetic change over broad river basins and sub-basins. Tier 3 studies, by contrast, are able to construct pedigrees in naturally spawning populations that include hatchery and wild fish. We can then use actual matings to infer the fitness of hatchery versus wild individuals, based on the numbers of offspring we observe in our progeny samples. We get extraordinary detail from the tier 3 studies but only for a single river system. Thus, tier 2 studies provide breadth of information, whereas tier 3 studies offer unparalleled depth of insight for single discrete systems. We exceeded our goals in almost all areas for both tier 2 and tier 3 studies, and, where we did not, we offer an explanation of why, and what future action will be taken (Lessons Learned). All subcontracts were let as expected, providing smolt trapping, tissue sampling, genotyping, and analysis. Our inter-laboratory standardization efforts with tribal, state, and federal agencies were highly successful in this period. These standardization activities have been an on-going element of this study, beginning with WDFW's forays into DNA markers in the late 1990s and continuing and becoming more formalized with the initiation of the newer genetics laboratories (CRITFC, USFWS, and IDFG). This report is intended to document success in achieving collection and genotyping goals. Data analyses, presentation, and publication are keeping pace with data collection; however, detailed results are not presented at this time. A complete and comprehensive analysis and description of results will be provided in published manuscripts and in the 2009 annual report (the culmination of the current 3-year rolling review cycle). In the first section of this report, we present accomplishments related to individual projects within this genetic monitoring program. Subsequent to the standard reporting categories, we provide a Specific Obligations section that lists accomplishments exactly as the deliverables are presented in the Pisces Statement of Work. This approach results in a small amount of redundancy, but we try to minimize obvious cases. The goal is to provide our accomplishments in a format that is easily compared to the Work-Element-driven format of Pisces, yet also provide a narrative that shows continuity with the individual studies that make up this research program.