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January 1985 LAMARRA ET AL.: SQUAW FISH 131 <br />:- <br />!- <br /> <br />A comparison between Transect 2 (pool) <br />and Transect 3a-3b (riffle) indicated marked <br />differences in these two habitat types. The <br />major abiotic differences between these two <br />transects were the dominant and interstitial <br />substrate sizes. Transect 2 had sand and silt as <br />the dominant substrate, with interstitial sub- <br />strates less than 0.5 mm in size. At Transect <br />3a-3b, the dominant substrate was cobble, <br />with 88% of the interstitial substrates greater <br />than 4 mm. The cobble and absence of silt on <br />this transect provided substantial interstitial <br />voids. <br />CRFP (1982) observed Colorado squawfish <br />moving from the area of Transect 2 into and <br />out of the cobble area of Transect 3b in ap- <br />parent spawning behavior (hashed area in <br />Fig. 2). Dominant substrate type and inter- <br />stitial characteristics at Transect 3a-3b may <br />be critical in the apparent preference of this <br />habitat by spawning Colorado squawfish. At <br />river mile 18.0, a physically similar habitat <br />was found (Transect 5 in Table i). However, <br />this transect had much higher velocities <br />(>4.5 m/sec) as compared to Transects 3a- <br />3b (2.1-2.4 m/sec), which may have pre- <br />eluded this area from being used £or spawn- <br />ing activities during 1981. <br />Seining Sites <br />Five locations at river mile 16.5 were sam- <br />pled intensively for fish, larval fish, macroin- <br />vertebrate drift, and benthic macroinverte- <br />brates (Fig. 2). Each of the five seining <br />locations were sampled five times at four- <br />hour intervals. At river mile 18.0, seven loca- <br />tions were sampled twice over an eight-hour <br />period. A comparison of the physical and bio- <br />logical data collected at the seining locations <br />(Table 2) indicates that the ranges of these <br />parameters fall within the ranges observed on <br />the transects (Table 1). Nine species of fish <br />were captured during this survey (Table 3). <br />Three species are endemic, two are native, <br />and the remaining five are nonnative. Among <br />the endemics, the most abundant were round- <br />tail chubs (39% of the total). One fish tenta- <br />tively identified as a humpback chub was <br />captured. Redside shiners were the most <br />abundant nonnative (15°70), followed by red <br />shiners (13%). The ratio of endemics and na- <br />TASt,E 2. Physical and biological data collected at five seining sites from river mile 16.5 on the Yampa River 24-2G <br />July 1981. <br /> Area Dominant Substrate Macroinvertebrates <br />Locat ion Time sampled Depth Velocity substrate organics Density Biomass <br />RM SH (hours) (m~) (meters) (m/sec) (ems) (gmshn~) (#'s/m~) (gms/m~) <br />16.5 SHi 1620 60 0.44 0.02 2.5 0.26 50 1252 <br /> 2030 <br /> 0000 <br /> 0910 <br /> 1435 <br />16.5 SH, 1Fi40 36 0.88 0.23 7.5 1.05 312 18.43 <br /> 2100 <br /> 0020 <br /> 0935 <br /> 1510 <br />16.5 SH,i 1700 30 0.38 1.Oi 0.75 O.OG 777 24.599 <br /> 2100 <br /> 0040 <br /> 0955 <br /> 1535 <br />16,5 SHE 1715 45 0.78 0.14 0.75 1.55 91 5.952 <br /> 2125 <br /> 0100 <br /> 1010 <br /> 1605 <br />16.5 SH; 1745 45 0.67 0.30 7.5 0.25 11 0.01 <br /> 2140 <br /> 0125 <br /> 1030 <br /> 1630 <br />