Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund Project #52002: Climate warming effects on Chinook Salmon foraging conditions and growth

The Chena River hosts one of the largest populations of Chinook Salmon in
the Alaska portion of the Yukon River drainage, which has recently
experienced poor Chinook returns throughout. Past work suggests that these
fish do poorly when they grow slowly due to cold, high-flow conditions
during their first summer in the river as juveniles, and the population
does well when juveniles experience warm, low-flow years and grow larger.
Because high flow drives low water temperatures and vice versa, it was
previously unclear to what extent each factor—flow and temperature—affects
the fish population. We collected data to run foraging and bioenergetics
models that simulate how flow and temperature affect growth. We invented
two sampling devices, a suction pump to sample drifting prey and a
computer vision system to measure the inedible debris that occupy most of
a fish’s feeding effort. We combined our data with USGS and NOAA records
to predict temperature, turbidity, prey, and debris on a daily basis
throughout our study years (2019-2020) and others. This dataset contains
the data we collected and compiled from other sources on fish growth,
temperature, invertebrate drift, and drifting debris.

奇纳河（Chena River）是育空河水系阿拉斯加段内奇努克鲑（Chinook Salmon）种群规模最大的分布区域之一，近期该流域内奇努克鲑的洄游种群整体表现不佳。过往研究表明，这类幼鲑在河中度过的首个夏季，若因水温偏低、流量偏高的环境导致生长缓慢，其种群存活率与规模会受到显著负面影响；而当幼鲑所处年份水温偏高、流量偏低，得以生长至更大体型时，种群则能维持良好状态。由于流量偏高会导致水温降低，反之亦然，此前学界尚不明确流量与水温这两个因素各自对鲑鱼种群的影响程度。本研究采集相关数据以构建觅食模型与生物能量学模型，模拟流量与水温对鲑鱼生长的调控机制。我们研发了两款采样装置：一款用于采集漂流性猎物的抽吸泵，以及一套用于量化鱼类摄食过程中占比最高的不可食用碎屑的计算机视觉系统。我们将自主采集的数据与美国地质调查局（USGS）、美国国家海洋和大气管理局（NOAA）的公开记录相结合，实现了研究时段（2019-2020年）及其他年份的水温、浊度、猎物与碎屑量的逐日预测。本数据集收录了我们自主采集及从其他渠道整合的鲑鱼生长、水温、无脊椎动物漂流物与漂流碎屑相关数据。