Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program: Alaska
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

Chinook salmon are an important commercial, subsistence, and recreational fishery resource in Alaska. Substantial declines in escapement from many Alaskan watersheds in recent years have resulted in closures of Chinook salmon fishing in more imperiled drainages, such as the Chena River, Alaska. Physical processes such as hydrology and stream temperature are important mechanisms that influence fish populations, yet their dynamics are poorly understood in boreal stream ecosystems. This project was a collaboration between the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. We developed spatially continuous metrics that describe historic, current, and future physical habitat, hydrologic and temperature regimes within the Chena River basin, a predictive model of stream thermal regimes used to investigate riverscape-scale patterns in juvenile salmon bioenergetic performance, and an assessment of environmental and density-dependent factors influencing juvenile and adult Chinook salmon population dynamics and distributions. Our results will assist with conservation and management planning through identification and prioritization of critical spawning and rearing areas, and ultimately help identify mechanisms limiting Chinook salmon productivity within the Chena watershed.