Quantifying Thermal Impacts on Columbia River Steelhead Marine Growth Using Bioenergetics Models

Abstract Excerpt:
Columbia River steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is an anadromous, E.S.A.-listed salmonid with a diverse life history that is heavily mediated by the marine environment. Steelhead stocks have been in broad decline since the 1980s due to warming temperatures and loss of freshwater habitat, yet they remain understudied compared to other Pacific salmonids due to their relatively complicated life histories, including a long freshwater residence and multiple spawning events (Kendall et al. 2017). Steelhead spend 1 to 4 years in freshwater before entering the Northern California Current (NCC) ecosystem to disperse to offshore habitat (Daly et al. 2014).