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YOY Colorado pikeminnow collected during fall sampling trips of the concurrent nursery habitat <br />and ISMP studies, were positively correlated to the number of days of growth between average <br />hatch date and date of fall sampling (rz = 0.55). Days of growth for all years ranged from 50 to 98 <br />based on the average hatch date. There was also a positive correlation between total length and <br />the DD accumulations for the same period (rz = 0.63). Although these correlations did not <br />appear to be statistically significant (p > 0.2), a biological relationship exists. In the high flow <br />year of 1995, the degree day accumulation was low, resulting from a shorter period of <br />accumulation as well as lower average water temperatures. Thus, the average total lengths of <br />pikeminnow in the summer and fall of 1995 were 12 and 31 mm, respectively, which were small <br />in comparison to the average for all five yeazs of 20 and 38 mm (Figure 13). Overwinter <br />survival, based on the percent change in catch rates between fall and spring sampling, was also <br />positively correlated to the total lengths of Colorado pikeminnow in the fall (rz = 0.97) <br />(Trammell and Chart, 1998). The lowest overwinter survival was seen for the smallest fish, in <br />1995, while the highest survival was seen in 1994, the year with the highest total length in the <br />fall. <br />The smaller size of Colorado pikeminnow in 1995 may have resulted in reduced survival <br />of the age 0 Colorado pikeminnow through prolonged vulnerability to predators. Red shiner <br />have been observed to contain larval fish in their stomachs (Muth and Ruppert 1996). Although <br />no larval pikeminnow were positively identified in red shiner stomachs, it is likely some <br />predation occurs, due to the overlap in habitat use (Trammell and Chart 1998). Other larger fish <br />predators such as channel catfish are also present in nursery habitats, and likely have some <br />impact although no larval pikeminnow predation has been documented. <br />The flows and temperatures may also have affected the productivity of habitats and food <br />availability for Colorado pikeminnow, and other species, with less productivity occurring in high <br />flow years (Bestgen 1996). Non-native cyprinids are thought to have a negative effect on <br />Colorado pikeminnow survival through competition (Muth and Snyder 1995). In 1995, summer <br />and fall NNC catch rates were the lowest of the five years (Figure 14) (Trammell and Chart, <br />1998). Despite relatively low catch rates of NNCs, there were still over 2000 collected for every <br />Colorado pikeminnow in the fall sampling. At low population levels, non-native cyprinids are <br />probably still a significant source of competition. <br />In contrast to 1995, the moderate flow yeaz of 1996 had the highest juvenile Colorado <br />pikeminnow abundance in the fall, although total larval abundance was nearly identical to that in <br />1995 at Moab. The highest abundance ofnon-native cyprinids was also seen in the fall of 1996, <br />although drift densities were only moderate. This suggests that some combination of flow and <br />temperature variables resulted in increased productivity in 1996, which benefitted both taxa. <br />However, factors contributing to the success of Colorado pikeminnow recruitment in 1996 were <br />not as easily distinguished as factors contributing to the demise of recruitment in 1995. <br />14 <br />