Publications

River discharge and water temperatures that occurred during April through July 2003 provided conditions suitable for spawning by white sturgeon downstream from Bonneville, The Dalles, John Day, and McNary dams. Although optimal spawning temperatures in the four tailraces occurred for less than two weeks, they coincided with a period of relatively high river discharge. Bottom-trawl...

Within historical time, western native fish communities have faced increasing threats from habitat loss, invasive species, and pollution. It should come as no surprise that human development has greatly altered fish habitat in the west because of the importance of water for domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses, power generation, waste disposal, flood protection, and transportation...

Rapid population growth in the Western United States over the last century has placed increasing strains on our water supplies and aquatic ecosystems. Historically, water rights have been used to determine the allocation of water in the West, but rules and regulations related to endangered species now often drive how water is released from reservoirs in large rivers such as the lower...

Flow augmentation, spill, surface collection, and improved turbine guidance systems have been identified as potential management actions to improve passage efficiency and survival of outmigrating juvenile salmonids. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), along with regional, state, and federal resource agencies, has designed and implemented studies to determine which management...

During 2004, the USGS Columbia River Research Laboratory conducted a study at McNary Dam using radio telemetry to estimate passage and survival parameters of juvenile salmonids. Our primary objective was to estimate these parameters under ambient environmental and operational conditions, and thus project-wide treatments were not implemented. The primary dam operation consisted of “biop”...

Invasive species are plants or animals that are present in an ecosystem beyond their native range. They may have few natural controls in their new environment and proliferate. They can threaten native species and interfere with human activities. The Western Fisheries Research Center (WFRC) has been conducting research to understand how non-native species invade and affect ecosystems...

The U.S. Geological Survey's Columbia River Research Laboratory (CRRL) was established in 1978 at Cook, Washington, in the Columbia River Gorge east of Portland, Oregon. The CRRL, as part of the Western Fisheries Research Center, conducts research on fishery issues in the Columbia River Basin. Our mission is to: 'Serve the public by providing scientific information to support the...

Infectious diseases are increasingly recognized as an important component of the ecology of fish in the wild. Many of the viral, bacterial, protozoan and fungal pathogens of fish that were initially discovered in captive fish have their origin among wild populations; however, the impact of disease among these free-ranging stocks has been difficult to study. At the WFRC, combinations of...

This report summarizes results of research activities conducted in 2002 and years previous to aid in the management and recovery of fall chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha in the Columbia River basin. The report is divided into self-standing chapters. For detailed summaries, we refer the reader to the abstracts given on the second page of each chapter. The Annual Reporting section...

No abstract available

During 1 April 2002 through 31 March 2003, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) continued work on several tasks, including quantifying habitat suitable for white sturgeon Acipenser transmontanus spawning, a long-term survey of young-of-the-year (YOY) white sturgeon recruitment in the lower Columbia River, and a laboratory study investigating predation on larval and juvenile white sturgeon...

No abstract available