Angelo Coast Range Reserve

03 Jul, 11 PM - 07 Jul, 11 PM

During Summer 2006 we (Wendy Palen-postdoc, Mike Limm-UCB grad student, Mary Power-UCB faculty, Ranjan Muthakrishnan-research assistant) propose to study the impact of deposited fine sediments for larval lamprery populations at the Angelo Reserve, specifically in the main stem South Fork Eel River. We plan to follow-up on previous studies from 2005 measuring the growth rates of lamprey over the summer low-flow sesason in enclosure experiments with different levels of fine sediment at two locations (Elder Cr. confluence and Fox Cr. confluence). Additionally, we plan to test whether larval lamprey actively select substrate habitats as a function of deposited fine sediment. This second research objective will be accomplished with a manipulative experiment offering enclosed lamprey a 'choice' of substrates. After a short period of acclimatization (1-2 weeks) enclosures will be sampled for the final distribution of lamprey and animals will be released live to the river. The growth experiment and the behavioral choice experiment will be conducted over the course of several months (~July-late October) in ~30 cm diameter metal baskets anchored to the river bottom in several relatively shallow areas of the SFER that coincide with areas of high larval lamprey density (Elder Cr. confluence, Wilderness Pool, Fox Cr. confluence). All animals will be collected by electrofishing and ultimately returned live to the river after each experiment. We will take care in electroshocking to avoid areas with juvenile steelhead or other salmonids and Rana boylii tadpoles and metamorphs. Finally, we also propose to observe individual lamprey released on the substrate of the river at sites along a gradient of both particle size (fines through small boulders) and fine sediment embeddedness (0-100%). These behavioral observations will allow us to better understand the site-selection behavior of larval lamprey under more natural conditions than can be replicated in mainpulative experiments. This research is a natural extension of both Mike Limm's earlier work at the Angelo Reserve examining larval lamprey growth rates with and without the presence of freshwater mussels, and the Power lab's and Wendy Palen's general interest in understanding the effects of anthropogenically enhanced fine sediment on river food webs. We do not anticipate that there will be any long-term adverse effects of these relatively short-term and small footprint experiments for the Angelo Reserve, nor should there be any conflicts with on-going research at the Reserve. We request perodic access and housing at the Reserve for the purposes of conducting the above experiments and observations. Two of us (Wendy Palen and Mary Power) will primarily be housed off-site and will only need daily access to the field sites and laboratory and computer facilities.

Visit #11491 @Angelo Coast Range Reserve

Approved

Under Project # 5489 | Research

Integrating the effects of future land-use and climate change for river food webs at local to watershed scales

faculty - Simon Fraser University

Reservation Members(s)

Wendy Palen Jul 3 - 7, 2006 (5 days)

Reserve Resources(s) | Create Invoice

Computer lab 1 Jul 3 - 7, 2006
Lab 1 Jul 3 - 7, 2006
Wilderness Lodge 1 Jul 3 - 7, 2006