42nd Annual Meeting 17-21 November 2010 Moab, Utah Wednesday, 17 November, 2010 17:00 - 21:00 Registration Moab Valley Inn 18:00 – 21:00 Informal social Moab Valley Inn – Moab and Canyonlands rooms Thursday, 18 November, 2010 ALL EVENTS WILL BE AT MOAB VALLEY INN – MOAB AND CANYONLANDS ROOMS 08:00-8:30 Welcome, Opening Remarks 08:30 - 12:00 GENERAL SESSION - 1 12:00 - 13:15 LUNCH 13:15 - 14:15 GENERAL SESSION - 2 14:15 - 14:30 BREAK 14:30 – 17:30 SPECIAL SYMPOSIUM 18:00 – 21:00 POSTER SESSION Friday, 19 November, 2010 08:30 - 12:00 GENERAL SESSION - 3 12:00 - 13:15 LUNCH 13:15 – 16:30 GENERAL SESSION - 4 17:00 - 18:30 BUSINESS MEETING 19:00 - open BANQUET Saturday, 20 November 2010 08:30 - 12:00 GENERAL SESSION - 5 12:00 - 13:00 LUNCH 13:00 – 15:15 GENERAL SESSION – 6 15:15 – 17:00 GENERAL SESSION – 7 Sunday, 21 November 2010 08:00 - 17:00 FIELD TRIPS 1 42nd Annual Meeting 17-21 November 2010 Moab, Utah Thursday, 18 November, 2010 2010-11-18 08:00:00 OPENING REMARKS GENERAL SESSION 1: Moderator—Dave Speas 2010-11-18 08:30:00 Oregon / Northern California Area Report, November 2010 Scheerer, Paul 1, Leal, Jimmy 2, Mauer, Alan 3, Reid, Stewart 4, Markle, Douglas 5, Sidlauskis, Brian 5, Miller, Stephanie 1, Divine, Paul 6. (1-Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Native Fish Investigations Project, 2- Bureau of Land Management, 3-U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 4-Western Fishes, 5-Oregon State University, 6- California Department of Fish and Game). The northwestern extreme of the desert region includes several endorheic drainage subbasins in Oregon, northeastern California, and northwestern Nevada (Fort Rock, Chewaucan, Goose, Warner, Catlow, Alvord, Malheur Lakes, Coyote Lakes, and Quinn). This region supports remnant fish faunas that once inhabited extensive pluvial Pleistocene lakes. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife: 1) conducted distribution surveys and obtained population estimates for Interior redband trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, at 273 locations in six subbasins in SE Oregon, 2) estimated relative lake abundance, operated a downstream migrant screw trap, fished larval traps, and monitored movements of PIT-tagged and radio-tagged Warner suckers, Catostomus warnerensis, in the Warner subbasin, 3) obtained a population estimate for Borax Lake chub, Gila boraxobius, in the Alvord subbasin, 4) introduced Foskett Spring speckled dace Rhinichthys osculus ssp., into Dace Springs, 5) marked Foskett Spring speckled dace in the Warner subbasin for an ageing validation study, and 6) reintroduced Miller Lake lamprey into Miller Lake and Evening Creek, an historic spawning tributary. Stewart Reid, Western Fishes, continued to: 1) suppress nonnative fishes from Modoc sucker, Catostomus microps, habitats in Modoc County and 2) work on lamprey systematics / distribution in the Pit/Goose/Klamath basins. Drs. Doug Markle, Oregon State University (OSU), and Stewart Reid synthesized available taxonomic data and photo- documented listed or list-able Oregon desert fishes for a book-in-progress “Freshwater fishes of Oregon”. Dr. Markle, David Simon, and Mark Terwilliger (OSU) studied Klamath sucker recruitment and larval retention in Upper Klamath Lake. Mark Terwilliger (OSU) conducted non-lethal ageing and ageing validation of Warner suckers and Foskett speckled dace. Daryl Bingham (BLM), Travis Neal (OSU), and Dr. Markle initiated a study of the taxonomy and distribution of Alvord and Borax Lake chub in the Alvord basin. Dr. Brian Sidlauskas and Kendra Hoekzema (OSU), in collaboration with BLM and ODFW, initiated a study of species limits and population structure in speckled daces across the arid drainages of Oregon using phylogenetics, microsatellite analysis, and morphometrics. The work will produce a systematic assessment of the taxonomic status of the threatened Foskett speckled dace, reveal patterns of genetic connectivity across the landscape, and test for the presence of cryptic species or subspecies. The California Department of Fish and Game’s Heritage and Wild Trout Program: 1) conducted fish surveys for Inland redband trout and nonnative trout on 24 streams in the Goose, Upper Pit River, and Surprise Basins to describe their distribution and to collect tissue samples for genetic analysis, and 2) evaluated habitat at 16 lakes/reservoirs in the Goose, Upper Pit River, and Surprise Basins for native ranid frogs (Oregon spotted frog and northern leopard frogs). Most sites either lacked suitable physical habitat basis or contained non-native predators; no ranid frogs were observed at 10 sites. 2010-11-18 08:45:00 The Evolution of Population Studies of the Mohave Tui Chub (Siphateles bicolor mohavensis) at NAWS China Lake 1 Williams, Susan . (1-Desert Mountain RC&D). A refuge population of Mohave tui chub (Siphateles bicolor mohavensis) was introduced into Lark Seep at Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake in 1971. As the population branched out into the adjacent channels, habitat maintenance and population monitoring became an ongoing requirement. Periodic population studies were preformed and methods evolved over time based upon lessons learned in the field. Methodological changes included varying the numbers of traps, capturing at different times of year, times of day and with different submersion duration. New populations continue to be discovered. As the population census methodology evolves, more fish are being captured, and the confidence in the population numbers at NAWS China Lake increases. 2010-11-18 09:00:00 Warner Sucker Investigations in the Warner Basin, Oregon Scheerer, Paul 1, Jacobs, Steve 1, Richardson, Shannon 1, Terwilliger, Mark 2. (1-Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Native Fish Investigations Project, 2-Oregon State University, Department of Fisheries and WIldlife). The Warner sucker (Catostomus warnerensis) is endemic to the Warner Valley, an endorheic subbasin of the Great Basin in southeastern Oregon and northwestern Nevada. This species was historically abundant and its historical range includes three permanent lakes, several ephemeral lakes, and three major tributary drainages. Warner sucker abundance and distribution has declined over the past century and it was federally listed as threatened in 1985 due to habitat fragmentation and threats posed by the proliferation of piscivorous non-native game fishes. In 2006-2010, we conducted investigations in the Warner basin to describe current distribution of Warner suckers, to quantify their abundance in the lakes and streams, to search for evidence of recent recruitment into the lakes, to describe size structure in the lakes and streams, to estimate sucker abundance relative to nonnative fish abundance in the lakes, to track movements of lake and stream suckers during the spawning season, and to look for evidence of larval drift. We found the Warner sucker populations in Crump and Hart Lakes were severely depressed. Recent abundance estimates in the lakes were some of the lowest on record. In addition, we found little evidence of recent recruitment of suckers to the lake populations. Sucker size distributions were dominated by large, older aged fish. Radio tracking of tagged lake fish documented losses of spawning fish in irrigation canals. We found the distribution of stream suckers to be patchy with a few 2 distinct areas of relatively high abundance. In 2007, we obtained a basin wide abundance estimate of ~6,900 fish in the tributary streams using a spatially- balanced random sampling design, but precision was low. In 2009, we described the distribution of Warner suckers in the Twentymile Creek subbasin and obtained a mark-recapture population estimate of ~4,600 suckers with high precision. We monitored movements of PIT-tagged and radio tagged suckers and operated a downstream migrant trap in the Twentymile Creek subbasin and found no evidence of downstream movement towards Crump Lake or losses into the irrigation ditches, yet noted large numbers of suckers moving upstream during the spawning period. After spawning, we sampled larval suckers using drift nets and dip nets, but found no evidence of larval drift. In addition, we collected tissue samples from suckers throughout the basin to examine levels of genetic variation within and among populations, to describe levels of genetic structuring among populations, to describe the relationship between stream and lake suckers, to infer live history characteristics, and to describe levels of genetic variation within an introduced population. Also, we completed a study verifying the feasibility of using pectoral rays as a non-lethal aging technique and collected pectoral rays from both lake and stream suckers to describe their age structure and age-at-maturity. Genetic analyses and the ageing study will be completed in 2011. 2010-11-18 09:15:00 Fine-scale invertebrate community partitioning in an arid headwater stream suggests unique habitat requirements for predators 1 1 Boersma, Kate S. , Bogan, Michael T. (1-Oregon State University, Department of Zoology). Predators are considered more susceptible to rapid changes in environmental variables than other trophic levels because of their high resource requirements. Predator losses destabilize community structure and can lead to irreversible changes to aquatic ecosystem functioning. Therefore, examining the existing relationship between predator distributions and abiotic variables is an important first step in order to predict aquatic community responses to climate change in streams. We sampled invertebrate communities in fragmented pools within