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<br />Squawfish Population Viability Analysis --July 1993 <br /> <br />Page 43 <br /> <br />squawfish dynamics. Based on considerable experience with spatial <br />phenomenon, I guess that source/sink dynamics are possible, which means <br />that the entire Upper Basin is one interactive dynamic system, incapable of <br />single-unit or subdivided recovery. <br /> <br />5. The Final PV A Model. <br /> <br />I constructed a grand computer simulation model to answer the question of <br />time to extinction. This model ignored age-structure and only counted <br />adults. The model ignored genetics and possible inbreeding depression. <br />The model ignored demographic stochasticity. The model ignored juvenile <br />movement and thus the Minimum Viable Length issue just discussed. The <br />model assumed positive local (based on 20 mile river segments) carrying <br />capacities, local A'S greater than 1.0 and diffusional movement of adults <br />between local populations. Diffusion movement has the character that <br />population density differences are evened out with time. Moderate to very <br />high environmental stochasticity could be applied to local populations. The <br />environmental stochasticity could be partially correleted along rivers. <br />Over a substantial range of parameter values, this model never predicted <br />extinction. Mean time to extinction was arbitrarily long. This conclusion <br />was not sensitive to the actual parameters, so long as they satisfied the <br />requirements listed above. The model leads to the conclusion that the <br />Colorado squawfish is viable. <br /> <br />The real question is of the structural stability of the model. What if A'S are <br />less than l.oo? What if the environment is perfectly correlated? What <br />happens if parts of the system are isolated from other parts? What happens <br />if the fundamental ecology of the Colorado squawfish is deteriorating <br />because of the increasing densities of exotics? Well, with all of these <br />eventualities, the Colorado squawfish could be driven extinct. <br /> <br />Acknowledgements <br /> <br />I thank Chuck McAda, Pat Nelson, Doug Osmundson, Tom Dowling, <br />Harold Tyus, John Hawkins and Ed Wick for discussiqn and insights. <br />However, the interpretations from the data and their suggestions are my <br />own. I thank Chuck McAda for providing data in computer-readable <br />form. <br />