Effective conservation strategies for imperiled species require an understanding of processes that influence fitness throughout the organism's life cycle and across the range of habitats needed to complete that cycle. I evaluated factors that affect population viability of bull trout Salvelinus confluentus, a threatened freshwater char species, throughout individual life stages and over the entire life cycle. I assessed the relationship between bull trout egg incubation success and environmental variables. Egg survival was negatively related to the percent of fine sediment in redds and positively related to hydraulic conductivity and the strength of downwelling. Next, I quantified juvenile bull trout survival rates and described movement patterns for this life stage. Juvenile bull trout emigrated from natal headwaters into larger rivers throughout the entire year and across a range of sizes. Estimates of juvenile survival rates improved dramatically when emigration was incorporated into the analysis. I integrated my observations of bull trout survival, growth, and movement to create a life-cycle model, which I used to better understand how populations respond to changes in specific demographic rates. Bull trout populations were particularly sensitive to changes in juvenile growth and survival. The relative effect of changes to fertility rates and adult survival varied depending upon whether a population was composed primarily of large, migratory, or smaller, resident individuals. Dispersal helped to lower the probability of extinction for small or declining populations when neighboring populations were stable. My research demonstrates that bull trout require access to habitats throughout entire watersheds to maintain population viability. My results suggest that limiting anthropogenic sources of fine sediment and maintaining areas of channel complexity that promote downwelling can be important for bull trout embryo survival. Management decisions should also consider the diverse behavior of juvenile bull trout and the wide range of habitat they use. Additionally, connectivity between populations is likely to be important for declining populations to persist. The diversity of life-history strategies expressed by bull trout helps maintain demographic stability within and among populations. As such, preservation of habitat integrity and full life-history diversity is imperative for conservation and recovery of bull trout populations range-wide.

Effective conservation strategies for imperiled species require an understanding of processes that influence fitness throughout the organism's life cycle and across the range of habitats needed to complete that cycle. I evaluated factors that affect population viability of bull trout Salvelinus confluentus, a threatened freshwater char species, throughout individual life stages and over the entire life cycle. I assessed the relationship between bull trout egg incubation success and environmental variables. Egg survival was negatively related to the percent of fine sediment in redds and positively related to hydraulic conductivity and the strength of downwelling. Next, I quantified juvenile bull trout survival rates and described movement patterns for this life stage. Juvenile bull trout emigrated from natal headwaters into larger rivers throughout the entire year and across a range of sizes. Estimates of juvenile survival rates improved dramatically when emigration was incorporated into the analysis. I integrated my observations of bull trout survival, growth, and movement to create a life-cycle model, which I used to better understand how populations respond to changes in specific demographic rates. Bull trout populations were particularly sensitive to changes in juvenile growth and survival. The relative effect of changes to fertility rates and adult survival varied depending upon whether a population was composed primarily of large, migratory, or smaller, resident individuals. Dispersal helped to lower the probability of extinction for small or declining populations when neighboring populations were stable. My research demonstrates that bull trout require access to habitats throughout entire watersheds to maintain population viability. My results suggest that limiting anthropogenic sources of fine sediment and maintaining areas of channel complexity that promote downwelling can be important for bull trout embryo survival. Management decisions should also consider the diverse behavior of juvenile bull trout and the wide range of habitat they use. Additionally, connectivity between populations is likely to be important for declining populations to persist. The diversity of life-history strategies expressed by bull trout helps maintain demographic stability within and among populations. As such, preservation of habitat integrity and full life-history diversity is imperative for conservation and recovery of bull trout populations range-wide.

For many native, imperiled salmonid species, the prioritization of recovery and conservation efforts hinges upon the identification of a species most limiting life stage. The early life-history stage can be a limiting life stage for fish, and given the importance of the reproductive stage to overall persistence, there is a need to better understand the spawning ecology and early life history of many salmonids. The Logan River, in northern Utah, contains one of the largest metapopulations of imperiled Bonneville cutthroat trout (BCT) throughout the Bonneville Basin. Little research has evaluated the temporal and spatial distribution of BCT spawning nor quantified their early life-history survival. In the summer of 2008, I documented the spawning ecology of BCT and quantified their early life-history survival via egg-to-fry survival field experiments in four tributaries to the Logan River. I observed considerable variability in the timing, magnitude, and duration of spawning between study streams, in part as a function of a variable, multi-peaked hydrograph. I also conducted egg-to-fry survival experiments using incubation boxes and hatchery-fertilized, eyed cutthroat embryos and installed these boxes throughout my study streams. I found that survival was extremely variable within and among my study streams. For example, the variation I observed in survival appeared to be a function of fine sediment loads. Lastly, I observed that in the Logan River the timing of greatest intensity of both stream side and in-stream anthropogenic activities (e.g., livestock grazing, horseback riding) overlaps directly with the spawning and early life stages of BCT. Using my estimates of early survival, I revised a four-stage matrix population model for BCT in order to evaluate the hypothetical effects of anthropogenic impact on rearing areas. I determined that population growth rates are sensitive to perturbation at the egg-to-fry and fry to age-1 stages, and if even a small number of redds are destroyed through habitat degradation, a high degree of immigration of reproductively mature BCT is required to maintain the near-term persistence of this population. Future conservation efforts for BCT should be prioritized to protect areas where land-use activities are high during the sensitive spawning and early life-stage periods.

The aim of the M.Sc. thesis was to verify possibility of weaning weatherfish larvae (Misgurnus fossilis) from the live food to the dry starter mixture using the method of co-feeding. The experiment included 3 control groups (starved control no feeding; negative control fed exclusively with dry starter mixture; positive control fed exclusively with live food) and 10 experimental groups with 5 different dates of termination of co-feeding period (at the age 13, 18, 23, 28 and 33 days post-hatching dPH) and different duration of co-feeding period (1 and 7 days). The experiment lasted from the 6 dPH, when mixed feeding was iniciated, until the age 48 dPH at the temperature of 17,8 +- 0,7 °C. The effects of termination and duration of co-feeding period upon continuous survival, morphometric and gravimetric characteristics, ratio of macrobiogenic elements and gross caloric value in somatic tissues of larvae/juveniles were evaluated. Continuous survival, morphometric and gravimetric characteristics and total content of carbon and nitrogen in somatic tissues of larvae/juveniles were increasing with extending dates of termination of co-feeding period. The rearing of weatherfish larvae was accompanied by the marked decline of survival in the period 13 20 dPH, regardless of selected diet regimes in individual groups. Within all fed groups, the worst results of continuous survival and growth were recorded in the negative control as well as groups with date of co-feeding period termination at age 13 dPH. All individuals in these groups died at age 41 dPH. At the end of the experiment, the highest values of continuous survival were achieved in the positive control as well as groups with dates of co-feeding period termination at age 23, 28 and 33 dPH, respectively. There was no significant statistical difference among these groups. Very good results in terms of morphometric and gravimetric characteristics were achieved in the groups with dates of co-feeding period termination at age 28 and 33 dPH, respectively. However, only in group with date of co-feeding period termination at age 33 dPH were achieved comparable values of morphometric characteristics with the positive control. The exception formed only values of the body height as well as dry and wet weights which were significantly higher in the positive control compared to other fed groups. The duration of the co-feeding period (either 1 or 7 days) did not affect any of the monitored characteristics. The results of the present thesis also show that the weatherfish fry best prospers on live food and, on the contrary, fry can not be reared using dry starter mixture as a sole food source. To sum up, among all tested groups that use co-feeding, only weaning of larvae with the date of co-feeding termination at age 33 dPH could be advised. In such condition the continuous survival rate as well as lenght growth reach comparable values with group exclusively fed by live food.