Methods and summary data for limnology and food web structure in Osoyoos Lake, B.C. (2005-2013) / by K.D. Hyatt ... [et al.].: Fs97-13/1258E-PDF

In 1994, the Okanagan Nation Alliance approached Fisheries and Oceans Canada with a request for assistance in status and trend assessments to support stock and habitat restoration work focused on Okanagan sockeye salmon that appeared to have fallen to historic lows of abundance. In the following years, several collaborative habitat and stock restoration projects were initiated to facilitate rebuilding of the Okanagan sockeye salmon population to historic abundance levels. Here we provide a detailed site-description and report on field survey and sample processing methods used on Osoyoos Lake to assess: (1) limnological conditions (temperature, oxygen, water transparency, nutrient concentrations, plankton community structure etc.) in the principal nursery lake, (2) annual to seasonal changes of abundance and biological traits of juvenile sockeye salmon, and (3) abundance of other limnetic fish species. Monthly or sub-monthly survey work was especially intensive during the years 2005-2013 when detailed field observations were required to serve as: (a) critical response variable observations to determine whether DFO recommended increases in abundance of adult sockeye spawning in the Okanagan River (Hyatt and Rankin 1999) were accompanied by proportionate increases in abundance levels of fry recruiting to Osoyoos Lakeand subsequent production of both smolts and returning adults, (b) “control” observations of seasonal to annual patterns of growth and survival of wild-origin, sockeye fry relative to hatchery-origin fry introduced into either Skaha or Osoyoos lakes as part of an Okanagan Nation Alliance stock restoration project and (c) “test interval” observations to monitor annual production of wild fry and smolts following the 2004 deployment of a fish-and-water management tools (FWMT) decision support system to improve “fish friendly” water management decisions for the Okanagan River and Lake system (Hyatt et al.2015). Annual to seasonal observations obtained from Osoyoos Lake are documented in the current report while comparative observations from Skaha Lake are published in a companion Data Report (Hyatt et al.2015).

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