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<br />One exception was the abundance of suckers, which was correlated with <br />summer flows (r = 0.708, P < 0.05) in the upper nursery area. <br />Exceptionally high summer flow years of 1983-84 were associated with <br />lowered fish standing crops, and these years accounted for much of the <br />correlation between fish abundance and flows. Correlations in which <br />those years were excluded from analysis were much lower (range -0.70 to <br />0.58, P > 0.05). <br />Fish abundance (CPUE) in September-October seine samples was <br />correlated with backwater temperature for 4 species in the lower nursery <br />area and for 3 species in the upper (r > 0.7, P < 0.05). This included <br />chubs, speckled dace, channel catfish, and redside shiner in the lower <br />nursery, and Colorado squawfish, red shiner, channel catfish, and green <br />sunfish in the upper. The strength of these relationships were <br />attributed to high flow years of 1983-84, and when those years were <br />excluded, all of the correlations were weak (r < 0.7) and none were <br />significant (P > 0.05). <br />Habitat use. Habitat data were collected from 613 backwaters, <br />including 296 in the lower and 317 in the upper nursery areas. Average <br />sizes of backwaters sampled in the upper and lower Green River were <br />similar (421 m2 in upper, SO = 1,001; 582 m2 lower, SO = 634), but depths <br />and water temperatures differed between the two locations (t-tests; <br />P < 0.01). Backwaters in the upper area were 7 cm deeper (average <br />maximum depth 36.6 cm, SO = 24.9) and 5.6oC cooler (average water <br />temperature 13.10C, SO = 4.7) than those in the lower area (average <br />maximum depth 29.6 cm, SO = 25.5; average water temperature 18.70C, <br />SO = 5.1). <br /> <br />8 <br />