Understanding the effects of environmental variability on salmon habitat quality is important to evaluating salmon growth and survival of listed, threatened and endangered stocks of salmonids in the Pacific Northwest. The objectives of this research are to 1) identify the physical and biological characteristics of the habitats of juvenile Chinook and coho salmon in the northern California Current, 2) develop a spatially explicit individually-based model that links salmon growth to habitat quality, and 3) develop salmon ocean habitat indices to provide annual predictions of salmon stock abundance, and indicators of climate forced ecological changes that predict interannual variations in the survival of salmonids. The investigators will determine if distribution and abundance (resource metrics), and growth and health characteristics (performance metrics) of juvenile Chinook and coho salmon during the first summer and early fall of ocean residence are affected by the interaction of physical and biological oceanographic processes which create and modulate their habitat in the California Current. The investigators will combine and synthesize 12 years of data on the ecology of juvenile salmonids derived from a) the GLOBEC California Current studies in 2000 and 2002, b) Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) studies from 1998 through 2004, and c) the Pearcy studies of 1981-1985. The knowledge developed from this research will be provided to resource managers so that harvest quotas for salmonid stocks can be set within the context of knowledge of variability in ocean conditions. Training for a graduate student and involving undergraduate students as part of an REU program at the Hatfield Marine Science Center are incorporated into the project.
