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and humpback chub and channel catfish may be competing for food or <br />microhabitat as suggested by capture of both species with baits in the same <br />eddy habitats (Tyus and Minckley 1988; Karp and Tyus, in review). The high <br />number of channel catfish in humpback chub spawning habitat, in addition to <br />their potential ability to compete and prey on humpback chub (Kaeding and <br />Zimmerman 1983; Karp and Tyus, in review; C. 0. Minckley, personal <br />communication), suggests that this omnivorous introduced species may adversely <br />affect survival of humpback chub in DNM. Channel catfish may be using <br />mainstream habitats in the Green River for winter refugia as in some other <br />river systems (Newcomb 1989). Flows or other conditions (e.g. temperature and <br />fish movements) which may favor growth and reproduction of channel catfish in <br />the Green River basin should be evaluated. <br />Humpback chub in DNM spawn following highest spring flows at river <br />temperatures about 20° C (Figure 7; Karp and Tyus, in review). This <br />relationship between chub spawning and spring runoff has also been noted in <br />the Blackrocks area of the upper Colorado River (Valdez and Clemmer 1982; <br />Archer et al. 1985), and in the Little Colorado River, Ariz. (Kaeding and <br />Zimmerman 1983; C.O. Minckley, pers. comm.). Spring runoff is important to <br />reproductive success because spawning presumably occurs in shoreline eddies, <br />during the period of declining flows and warming river temperatures following <br />peak spring runoff. Availability of shoreline eddy habitat is greatest with <br />spring flooding and decreases thereafter with decreasing summer flows. Loss or <br />reduction of spring runoff could reduce availability of spawning habitat and, <br />thus, adversely affect humpback chub reproduction. Habitat alteration may also <br />promote hybridization with other species (Valdez and Clemmer 1982). Flow <br />reductions and decreased temperatures have been implicated as factors <br />curtailing successful spawn and increasing competition in the Colorado River <br />(Kaeding and Zimmerman 1983). <br />Although fall and winter habitat requirements of humpback chub are not <br />well known, some observations in DNM indicated that the fish remain in pools <br />and eddies of impounded water and rapids in low flow conditions (Karp and <br />Tyus, in review). A minimum flow is necessary to maintain these habitats. <br />Bonytail Chub <br />Habitat requirements of the bonytail chub in the Green River basin are <br />largely unknown. Fish collections in Echo Park (DNM) before and after closure <br />of Flaming Gorge Dam indicated that the species was present in moderate <br />numbers at the confluence of Yampa and Green rivers (Vanicek 1967). However, <br />more recent investigations in that area have yielded few captures. Holden and <br />Stalnaker (1975) reported the capture of 36 bonytail chubs in Yampa (lower 16 <br />km) and upper Green rivers from 1968 to 1970. Holden and Crist (1981) <br />collected one bonytail chub in the lower Yampa River in 1979, and USFWS <br />biologists captured one suspected juvenile in 1987. Preliminary results of a <br />radiotracking study of adult bonytail chub introduced into the upper Green <br />River in 1988 and 1989 indicate that the fish exhibit crepuscular movements, <br />and are relatively quiescent during the day and night (S. Cranney, Utah <br />Division of Wildlife Resources, pers. comm.). <br />Bonytail chub have apparently declined in the Echo Park area, possibly <br />due to flow and temperature changes resulting from closure of Flaming Gorge <br />Dam. A similar pattern has been noted in the Colorado River downstream from <br />Glen Canyon Dam (Utah State Department Fish and Game 1964, 1969). Although the <br />preimpoundment poisoning of riverine habitat in the upper Green River in 1962 <br />22 <br />