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<br />1368 <br /> <br />TABLE 7.-Average annual transition probabilities (proba- <br />bilities of movement into or out of a reach using only nonzero <br />values) for average-size Colorado pikeminnow (499,5 mm <br />TL) captured in the Green River basin, 2000-2003. A positive <br />net value indicates that more fish moved into the reach than <br />out of it, a negative value that more fish moved out of the <br />reach than into it. See Table 6 for descriptions of river reaches. <br /> <br />Movement <br /> <br />Reach Into Out of Net <br />Yampa River 0.012 0,027 -0,015 <br />White River 0,027 0.035 -0,008 <br />Middle Green River 0,054 0,021 0,033 <br />Desolation-Gray Canyon 0.066 0,050 0,016 <br />Lower Green River 0.D15 0.121 -0,106 <br /> <br />distance movements just across the boundary of one <br />reach to another (e.g., from the White River mouth to <br />the middle Green River) and thus may not necessarily <br />reflect a large total distance moved. The average <br />transition probabilities (only nonzero values were used) <br />for a fish of average TL moving from the Yampa River <br />(0.027) and the middle Green River reach (0.021) were <br />low, reflecting a relatively high propensity of fish to <br />remain in those reaches (Table 7). The values from the <br />White River (0.035), the Desolation-Gray Canyon <br />reach (0.050), and the lower Green River reach (0.121) <br />were higher. The mean values of '" into a particular <br />reach from all other reaches were lower for tributaries <br />at the extremities of the Green River basin (Yampa <br />River = 0.012, White River = 0.027) and the lower <br />Green River reach (0.015) than for main-stem Green <br />River sites (Desolation-Gray Canyon = 0.066, middle <br />Green River = 0.054) in the middle of the study area. <br />The negative net values of '" for the Y ampa and lower <br />Green River reaches suggest a net movement of fish <br />from those areas. The positive net values for the middle <br />Green River and Desolation-Gray Canyon river <br />reaches suggest movement into those areas during <br />each year of this study; the near-zero net value for the <br />White River suggests equal numbers of fish entering or <br />leaving that area. <br />The relatively high and positive values of '" for <br />small fish in the lowermost two sections of the Green <br />River reflected upstream movement. The estimates of <br />'" for fish moving from the lower Green River to the <br />Desolation-Gray Canyon reach (0.121), from Desola- <br />tion-Gray Canyon to the middle Green River reach <br />(0.078), and from the White River to Desolation-Gray <br />Canyon (0.080) were the largest detected in this study <br />(Table 6). Estimates for upstream movements (i.e., to <br />the White and Yampa rivers) from downstream areas <br />were lower. The highest downstream values of '" <br />detected were for fish moving from the middle Green <br /> <br />BESTGEN ET AL. <br /> <br />OJ <br />"0 <br />..c <br />E <br />OJ <br />-i <br /> <br />2 <br />1.8 <br />1.6 <br />1.4 <br />1.2 <br />I <br />0,8 <br />0,6 <br />0.4 <br />0,2 <br />o <br />1991 <br /> <br />1999 <br /> <br /> <br />1993 <br /> <br />1995 <br /> <br />2001 <br /> <br />2003 <br /> <br />1997 <br /> <br />Year <br /> <br />FiGURE 7.-Estimated finite rate of population change <br />(lambda) from ISMP data collected at 10 sites in the Green <br />River basin from 1991 to 2003, Error bars represent 95% <br />confidence intervals, Values of lambda greater than I indicate <br />an expanding population, values less than 1 a declining <br />population, and values of I a stable population, <br /> <br />River to Desolation-Gray Canyon (0.045) and from the <br />White River to Desolation-Gray Canyon (0.080). <br /> <br />Finite Population Rates of Change <br />We attempted to fit models that estimated A as a <br />function of time for the ISMP reaches, the middle and <br />lower Green River reaches, and the Yampa and White <br />rivers. Parameter estimates were imprecise or models <br />did not converge when A was estimated as a function of <br />p, S, river, and time. Therefore, we dropped the river <br />term and simply estimated a riverwide A over time with <br />p and S held constant, which allowed valid estimates <br />for the first and last intervals as well. We did not use <br />the TL covariate because fish were likely to grow <br />substantially over capture-recapture intervals during <br />the 1991-2003 period, which may have biased size <br />effects over time. <br />Estimates of A for the period 1991-2003 suggest a <br />long-term increase in the abundance of Colorado <br />pikeminnow in the Green River basin up to year <br />2000 because A was greater than 1 in every annual <br />interval except 1996-1997 (0.80) and 1998-1999 <br />(0.99) (Figure 7). The confidence intervals for the <br />estimates were typically wide. For all three annual <br />intervals between the years of abundance estimation <br />sampling (2000-2003) A was less than 1, and the upper <br />confidence limits did not include 1 in any periods. <br /> <br />ISMP CPUE Trends, 1991-2003 <br /> <br />The CPUE indices for Colorado pikeminnow at <br />standard ISMP reaches in the middle and lower Green <br />River and the White and Yampa rivers were variable <br />but generally increased until 2000 (Figure 8). White <br />River CPUE indices were particularly variable, as they <br />