Biophysical Working Group

 

The goal of the Biophysical Working Group is to compare and contrast the status of Alaska salmon and their habitats across regions.

 

 

 

 

Image: Andrew Hendry

 

Key questions

The following key questions have guided our work:

  1. How do biological and physical factors interact with sociocultural, economic and governance domains of salmon systems?
  2. How do patterns of physical habitat and drivers of habitat quality vary across regions?
  3. What are the patterns of biological diversity within and among species across regions?
  4. Does habitat diversity relate to biological diversity across regions? If so, in what way?

Examples of our work

 

Interaction of biological and socioeconomic domains:
Fig. 1-1  Number of culverts on salmon streams, by region and grade of culvert

Fig. 1-1

 

Patterns of physical habitat and drivers of habitat quality:
Fig. 1-2  Change in average temperature in each of the SASAP regions, 1900- 2016

Fig. 1-2

Patterns of biological diversity within and among species:
Fig. 1-3 Total length of salmon streams in SASAP regions, by species.

FIg 1-3

Relationship of habitat diversity to biological diversity:

Fig. 1-4  CAPTION NEEDED

 

Fig. 1-4

Addressing the data

To address these questions, we have compiled and summarized many different datasets to learn more about salmon and their habitats across Alaska, including:

Escapement and harvest by stock complexes and species

  • Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Commercial Fisheries. 2017. Daily salmon escapement counts from the OceanAK database, Alaska, 1921-2017. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. doi:10.5063/F1VQ30W7.
  • Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission. 2018. Commercial salmon harvest data, 1882-2016. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. doi:10.5063/F12805V3.

Extent of hatchery enhancement across regions

  • Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Mark, Tag and Age Laboratory, Madeline Jovanovich, and Emily O’Dean. Annual salmon hatchery releases from the Hatchery Release Report Form, Alaska, 1952-2017. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. doi:10.5063/F1N014R7.

Known amount of anadromous waters in each region

  • Natural and human-influenced drivers of freshwater habitat by region (e.g. floodplain structure and channel complexity, sinuosity and slope, presence of invasive species, culvert fish passage, hydrologic  drivers and land-use impacts)
  • Leslie Jones, Jared Kibele, and Marie Johnson. Regional fish passage assessment, Alaska, 2000-2017. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. doi:10.5063/F1MW2FC2.
  • Leslie Jones, Jared Kibele and Rachel Carlson. 2018. Percent landcover per SASAP region and Hydrolic Unit (HUC8) boundary for Alaskan watersheds. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. doi:10.5063/F1J38QR1.
  • Leslie Jones, Jared Kibele and Rachel Carlson. 2018. Slope per SASAP region and Hydrolic Unit (HUC8) boundary for Alaskan watersheds. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. doi:10.5063/F15T3HQ1.
  • Leslie Jones, Jared Kibele, Rachel Carlson, and Marie Johnson. 2018. Elevation per SASAP region and Hydrolic Unit (HUC8) boundary for Alaskan watersheds. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. doi:10.5063/F1Z60M87.

Historic and contemporary climate conditions such as precipitation and air temperatures

  • Jared Kibele and Leslie Jones. 2017. Historic air temperatures in Alaska for 1901-2015, with spatial subsetting by region. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. doi:10.5063/F1028PSR.
  • Jared Kibele and Leslie Jones. 2018. Historic precipitation in Alaska for 1901-2015, with regional subsetting by SASAP region. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. doi:10.5063/F1H41PP3.

Marine distribution of salmon stocks

  • North Pacific Anadromous Fish Commission. INPFC/NPAFC High-seas salmonid tag-recovery database, 1956 – 2013. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. doi:10.5063/F18W3BJB.
  • Greg Ruggerone and Jim Irvine. 2018. North Pacific salmon abundance, 1925-2015. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. doi:10.5063/F1CN7254.
  • Changes in age and size structure of stocks within and among regions, in collaboration with the Salmon Size Working Group
  • Jeanette Clark, Rich Brenner, and Bert Lewis. 2018. Compiled age, sex, and length data for Alaskan salmon, 1922-2017. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. urn:uuid:f2dae65b-d7c4-4d03-8e6d-2916535f04a7.

Measures of the human footprint in each region (e.g. urbanization,  mining, human density)

  • Jared Kibele and Leslie Jones. 2018. Global terrestrial Human Footprint maps for Alaska, 1993 and 2009, with SASAP regional subsetting. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. doi:10.5063/F1B856CM.
  • Jared Kibele and Leslie Jones. 2018. Mines in Alaska with subsetting by watershed and SASAP region, 2010 to 2016. Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity. doi:10.5063/F1FX77P9.

Principal Investigator

Dr. Peter Westley

Lead
University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences
pwestley@alaska.edu

Peter received his BSc and MSc from the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences and his PhD from Memorial University of Newfoundland. In the summer of 2014 he made the final leg of a long journey back to his home state of Alaska, where he joined the faculty in the Department of Fisheries in the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. As Principal Investigator of the Salmonid Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Lab (seec-lab.com), Peter and his students strive to understand the ecological patterns and processes that give rise to adaptation in nature, the consequences of adaptation for management and conservation, with the goal of sustaining the connections between salmon, people, and place.

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Explore the work of the Salmon Size Working Group

Explore salmon habitat by region

Other Links of Interest

The Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB)