John Plumb, Ph.D.

In graduate school, I focused on the effects of lake conditions on native lake trout reproduction potential in Canada, and my doctoral research focused on the movement and growth of Snake River fall Chinook salmon over a period of population recovery.  Today, I am involved a variety of fisheries topics including fish passage and survival at dams, environmental effects on fish fitness, and factors affecting natural and hatchery fish production over their life cycle. My goal is to provide useful information to resource managers for the wise use of our fisheries.

Research interests:

My work focuses on the quantitative aspect of fisheries. I specialize in the estimation of fish survival, movement, and growth from data obtained from passive and active telemetry and tagging technologies. I tailor statistical and mechanistic models to answer specific research and management questions related to environmental and human-induced effects on fish populations. For example, several of my current projects are (1) quantifying the life cycle production of naturally-produced Snake River fall Chinook salmon, (2) development and application of the S3 fish production model to assess the effects of flow management scenarios on juvenile Chinook and coho salmon in the Klamath and Trinity rivers, CA, and (3) assess the feasibility of reintroducing winter-run Chinook salmon above Shasta Dam, CA.