Discussion Handout for Negotiating Meeting

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Discussion Handout for Platte River Negotiating Meeting, Dec. 13, 2004 Pallid Sturgeon "stage change study" General request from the US Fish and Wildlife Service To Dr. Jim Parham, UNL, NE (Post-Doc Research Associate) 1) develop a study plan/protocol for assessing the effect of platte river stage change and how that stage change affects the amount and type of area inundated as stage rises. 2) we anticipate using aerial photography taken over a series of years to form a GIS database to evaluate the effect of stage change 3) we anticipate some kind of analytical process applied to the GIS data to assess effects of stage change on pallid habitats 4) we anticipate evaluating other data on pallids and pallid habitats to complete the assessment of effect of stage change on pallid sturgeon 5) estimate the cost and time required for such a project 6) our next Platte river meeting is December 13-14, 2004, and I would like an answer as to whether the recovery team could do this prior to that meeting and also how long it would take to develop the protocol/study plan. Response from Dr. Parham Completed Research Substantial work on developing a stage to habitat relationship for pallid and shovelnose sturgeon on the lower Platte River has already been completed. Using aerial photography on various dates from 1993, 1999, and 2001, we have classified 302 km of river into one of four major habitat classes. The habitat classes are open water, shallow sand bar complexes, exposed sand bars, and woody islands. Sections of the river averaging 8.2 km in length were compared to the daily discharge rates from the nearest appropriate USGS gaging station resulting in the proportional distribution of the habitat classes at 27 different discharge rates between 0 and 595 cros (21,000 cfs). The curvilir_ear lines of best fit were calculated the re?ationship between discharge and each habitat class, and then standardized together for a generalized relationship between a11 habitat classes and discharge. Specific distributions of depth and velocity for each of the habitat classes were estimated from past data collected on the lower Platte River for the IFIM transects in late 1980's. Habitat suitability criteria were developed form the on- going sturgeon research at LTNL's School of Natural Resources. Suitable habitat to discharge relationships have been described for both pallid and shovelnose sturgeon in the lower Platte River. Additionally the relationship between river connectivity and discharge has been developed from the classified imagery to describe the discharge necessary to allow the migration of the sturgeon in the lower Platte River to occur.