Date of Award:

5-2012

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Watershed Sciences

Committee Chair(s)

Chris Luecke

Committee

Chris Luecke

Committee

Brett Roper

Committee

Frank Howe

Abstract

In the past many inland trout species were believed to be sedentary, only occupying small stream segments (20 meters) during their life span. Recently it has been found that cutthroat trout do move and many populations do contain both mobile and non-mobile strategies. Most organisms move to attain greater growth rates, but movement also leads to higher detection by predators. Both mobile and non-mobile strategies have been observed in Spawn creek, a tributary of the Logan River in Northern Utah. My research evaluated the movement patterns, survival, and growth of adult Bonneville cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii Utah. My objectives were to compare survival and growth rates among trout exhibiting different movement strategies (mobile and non-mobile).

To accomplish my objectives I marked trout with Passive Integrative Transponder (PIT) tags that can be electronically detected with waterproof antennas. I followed the movements of 491 cutthroat trout from June 2009 to September 2010 to determine movement strategies.

I detected seasonal movement patterns and found that movement was highest during spring and fall. No difference was detected between growth rates of mobile and non-mobile groups of trout. While mobile strategies were not found to increase growth rates they did lead to higher mortality during summer months.

Checksum

b48c6f9b6b1d89047327964b2513da75

Comments

This work made publicly available electronically on December 21, 2012.

Download

Share

COinS

Copyright for this work is retained by the student. If you have any questions regarding the inclusion of this work in the Digital Commons, please email us at .