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backwaters and gravel pits combined account for 72%. Use of runs drops off entirely during June. <br />The spring period ends when adults return to their home range area. <br />Summer <br />There appears to be no clear distinction between a spring and summer period for razorback <br />suckers. July might be viewed as a transitional month between the spring spawning period (late <br />April through late June) and summer (August through October) use of the non-spawning home <br />range. In July, chute-channel backwaters continue to be used (36%) but gravel pits are no longer <br />available. Use of pools and slow runs begins to increase again in July. July, along with the spring <br />months of May and June is the only period that razorback sucker are sometimes found inhabiting <br />shoreline habitat (7-9%). During the August-October period, habitat usage is fairly evenly divided <br />between pools and slow runs which together are used almost exclusively. <br />Seasonal Partitioning of the Year <br />Though coexisting under the same conditions, the different behavioral patterns of razorback sucker <br />and Colorado squawfish result in a year that is partitioned somewhat differently. However, <br />because we can only recommend one flow regime for the river, a third seasonal partitioning was <br />made that was a composite of the ones made for each species. Summer and winter flow needs of <br />razorback sucker in the 15-mile reach could not be addressed in this report because of a lack of 15- <br />mile reach summer and winter habitat use data, i.e., radio-tagged razorback suckers spent their <br />summers and winters in the adjacent 18-mile reach. However, to keep things consistent, we used <br />patterns of habitat use of both species to partition seasons in a way that can be used for both <br />reaches. <br />Transitional periods were either lumped or split but the core months of each season stayed basically <br />the same (Fig. 7). A distinct winter period emerged in which averaged pool use was greater than <br />40% for all months and use of slow runs was 20-40%. Winter included November, December, <br />January, February and March. A spring season included April, May and June when use of pools <br />averaged 30-40% and backwater use was 20-40%. Summer included August, September and <br />October. In October, the diversity of habitats used declines and pool use increases for both species. <br />However, slow run use is still high and pool use is not nearly as high as during winter. Also, main <br />channel temperatures are still high enough for the fish to be quite active. July appears to be more <br />of a transition month. Although habitat use for Colorado squawfish is fairly constant during July, <br />August and September, habitat use by razorback sucker in July is more similar to that during May <br />and June, particularly the continued high use of backwaters (36%). <br />Besides lumping March in with the winter months, the biggest departure in seasonal partitioning <br />from the earlier flow recommendations is including October in the summer period and splitting out <br />July from the summer and including it as part of spring. Including July as one of the spring months <br />also makes sense from a hydrologic standpoint; flow levels are still quite high, considerably above <br />base flow. Thus, we end up with a spring period which includes the runoff months and two base- <br />flow periods, summer and winter. <br />20