Life Sciences Commons^™

Effects Of Eutrophication On Birds In Three Bays Of Great Salt Lake: A Comparative Analysis With Utah Dwr Waterbird Survey Data, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Farmington Bay and Bear River support massive numbers of migratory birds. Because of Farmington Bay’s high nutrient loading and hypereutrophic condition, the Utah DWQ has proposed to list it as impaired under EPA’s and Utah’s 303d criteria. There is concern, however, that changing nutrient loading might influence invertebrate prey of birds, but it is not known if this would be a positive or negative effect. Bear River Bay is far less eutrophic, but has a similar shallow morphometry, and thus presents an ideal comparative opportunity to assess the influence of eutrophication on birds.

From 2007‐2011 the Utah Division of Wildlife …

Approaches For Studying Fish Production: Do River And Lake Researchers Have Different Perspectives? – Extended Abstract, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh, Nicholas A. Heredia, Brian G. Laub, Christy S. Meredith, Harrison E. Mohn, Sarah E. Null, David A. Pluth, Brett B. Roper, W. Carl Saunders, David King Stevens, Richard H. Walker, Kit Wheeler

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Biased perspectives of fisheries researchers may hinder scientific progress and effective management if limiting factors controlling productivity go unrecognized. We investigated whether river and lake researchers used different approaches when studying salmonid production and whether any differences were ecologically supported. We assessed 564 peer‐reviewed papers published between 1966 and 2012 that studied salmonid production or surrogate variables (e.g., abundance, growth, biomass, population) and classified them into five major predictor variable categories: physical habitat, fertility (i.e., nutrients, bottom‐up), biotic, temperature, and pollution. The review demonstrated that river researchers primarily analyzed physical habitat (65% of studies) and lake researchers primarily analyzed fertility …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Grassbed Treatments As Habitat For Juvenile Black Bass In A Drawdown Reservoir, D. R. Ratcliff, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh, J. Zustak

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Many reservoirs in arid regions experience highly variable water levels caused by seasonal inflow fluctuations and designated outflow requirements. At Shasta Lake, California, managers plant cereal-grain grassbeds on exposed drawdown shorelines to increase juvenile fish habitat, localize productivity, and increase invertebrate fish prey. To determine the efficacy of these plantings, the abundance of juvenile black basses Micropterus spp. (20–55 mm standard length) and the amount of periphyton and macroinvertebrate prey were compared among three treatment types: (1) planted grassbeds of cereal barley Hordeum vulgare; (2) artificial rope grassbeds, which eliminated physical deterioration and nutrient release; and (3) nonplanted control sites …

Brine Shrimp Ecology In The Great Salt Lake, Utah, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Hypersaline lakes are noted for their simple communities which facilitate understanding ecological interactions (Williams et al. 1990; Wurtsbaugh 1992; Jellison and Melack 1988). Nevertheless, we still cannot easily predict how environmental changes will effect the population dynamics in these lakes, at least in part because even these simple ecosystems may be more complex than we .realize. Many hypersaline lakes are dominated by the brine shrimp Artemia spp. The production of brine shrimp is often very high because the terminal, saline lakes accumulate nutrients that make them rich, and because the short food chains in them (nutrients-->phytoplankton-->brine shrimp) minim …

Survival Of Trout Strains As Affected By Limnological Parameters, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Prior work at East Canyon Reservoir, Utah indicated that adult trout are important predators of stocked juvenile rainbow trout. Brown trout, in particular, were exclusively piscivorous when th~y exceeded 185 mm standard length. Fish became increasingly important in the diet of cutthroat trout greater than 330 mm. The purpose of this study was to further document the effect of adult trout on survival of juvenile rainbow trout in mid-elevation reservoirs. Causey Reservoir was chosen because it was thought to contain large brown and cutthroat trout and had not been intensively studied during the last eight years.