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each of these results are discussed, however, it is important to <br />review population models and their assumptions. <br />Open vs closed population models.---Modelling of capture history <br />is defined by the idea of population closure. An open population <br />is one in which study organisms enter and leave (via birth, <br />death, immigration, emigration, or ontogeny). A closed population <br />does not change composition during the course of the study <br />(Nichols, 1992). While open populations are the norm in wildlife <br />invesAgations, closed models approximate the short-duration <br />realities of nature (Skalski and Robson, 1992). In fact, Pollock <br />(1982) recommended as an ideal survey design a sequence of <br />intense trapping sessions each followed by a longer period of <br />cessation of trapping. Data from each session would be analyzed <br />separately using closed models (as done herein). Survival rates <br />derived from the time-duration between trapping sessions could <br />then serve as input for open-population models (M. E. Douglas and <br />P. C. Marsh, in prep.). <br />Three assumptions are crucial to closed-population studies: <br />Closure is substantiated; organisms do not lose marks during the <br />course of the experiment; and all marks are correctly recorded at <br />each trapping occasion. The most critical is the first. Closure <br />for the duration of a trapping session allows the resulting <br />estimate to represent a "snapshot" of the population at a given <br />point in space and time. In the present study, sampling each <br />month was brief, and movements between reaches were negligible <br />during sampling. Thus, closure both by reach/ month and by month <br />for the entire LCR is indeed supported, and the resulting <br />population estimates are robust. <br />Past and present population estimates in the LCR.---Population <br />estimates for G. cypha in the LCR are presented in Table 1--5. <br />Our May, 1992 estimate at the confluence was 1,320 adult G. <br />cypha. This is a reduction of 27% and 54%, respectively, from <br />estimates of 1,800 and 2,900 individuals in May of 1987 and 1988. <br />An estimate for the entire 14.9 km length of the LCR during May <br />of 1992 was 4,346 (summed estimate for the three reaches = <br />4,602). This contrasts with the estimate of 25,000 chub in 1989. <br />The best-fitting population estimate for our entire 19-month <br />study (4,508 individuals) was obtained using Pollock and Otto's <br />estimator (Mbb). This model is one of the most realistic and <br />useful for a mark-recapture experiment, in that it allows for <br />individual variance in behavioral response to capture (Otis et <br />al., 1978). Its estimate is larger than two average estimates for <br />the 19-month study (i.e., 2,992 (monthly summed over reaches) and <br />2,434 (monthly for LCR)]. Although results from a model utilizing <br />19-months of data should be superior to an average of those data, <br />any such long-term estimate must be viewed skeptically, given the <br />violations of demographic and temporal closure mentioned earlier. <br />9