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<br />') <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />I;, <br /> <br />that temporary pooling of water at the mouth of the Little Colorado River during daily <br />hydropower peaks of darn discharges often created a habitat conducive to larval and juvenile <br />fish. During the descending limb of the daily peak, water in the pool would be pulled into the <br />mainstem carrying (or entraining) the larval and juvenile fish. In this example. the larval and <br />juvenile fish descended from the Little Colorado River. During the high-discharge event similar <br />pools will be available at the mouths of many tributaries but the source oflarval and juvenile <br />fish may, in most cases, be from the mainstem. The ability of these life-history stages to move <br />into such refuges as opposed to being swept downstream will be tested. <br /> <br />Metbods <br />Downstream displacement of (I) larval and (2) juvenile fishes will be studied <br />automatically for the former by thorough analysis of pre-flood, flood, and post-flood particulate <br />drift. A need for additional, more specific studies of potential displacement of eggs and larvae is <br />not anticipated, but the following suggestions for this aspect of the experiment may result in <br />other kinds of data becoming available, <br />(28) One danger influencing interpretation of apparent drift of eggs and larvae is that <br />adults may respond to the event by spawning in response to (I) stabilization of discharge for the <br />period prior to upramping; (2) increased discharge or rlring and stabilization of flow during <br />the event; (3) as a response to the descending limb of the hydrograph, or (4) respond to the event <br />by spawning somewhere else than in the mainstem, with the eggs or larvae entering the <br />mainstem in some way. <br />Whether or not eggs or larvae appear in drift samples will depend upon (1) whether or <br />not eggs and larvae are present in the system (have adults spawned yet?); (2) fragility of eggs <br />and larvae (if extremely fragile or handled roughly they may be reduced to amorphous, <br />gelatinous masses and therefore undetected); (3) hatching time of eggs deposited during one or <br />more of the above periods (in cold water of the mainstem, hatching time will likely exceed 10 <br />days for any species present; it may be longer, but likely not shorter); and (4) at what point in the <br />scenario larvae or eggs deposned other than in the mainstem (e.g., in creek mouths, which is a <br />possibility) are entrained into the channel to become susceptible to drift netting. Sampling for <br />eggs and larvae in tribuwy mouths should be done (at the same time as adults and subadults are <br />sampled to test Hypothrsis 1, above) in order to cover the eventua1ity that tributary inputs may <br />influence mainstem drift. <br />Hypothrsis 2 would be rejected for larval fishes if changes in larval drift (which are not <br />attributable to one or more of the potentially confounding circumstances given above) are <br />undetectable throughout the period of the experiment This assumes that eggs or larvae are even <br />present during the period of study. which they will likely be based on other years of information. <br />(2b) Assessment of the presence or absence of downstream displacement of juvenile <br />fishes may be possible by exhaustive sampling (adequate to obtain statistically comparable <br />sarnples) by seining along 5-10 selected sandbars or by electrofishing along 5-10 selected, talus- <br />dominated shorelines (e,g,. Valdez 1993 techniques). Pre-, during, and post-flood data can thus <br />be placed in perspective. Hypothrsis 2 would be rejected for juvenile fishes if there are (I) no <br />statistically significant changes in the population sIZes or (2) if the post-flood pattern is other <br />than an apparent upstream depletion and downstream accrual in population sizes. The evidence <br /> <br />24 <br />