Research to action for yukon river salmon: adapting to climatic, food-web, and habitat changesproject dates: 1 1 2025 through 12 31 2027AWARD purpose: salmon abundance in the yukon river basin has…

This Cooperative Agreement award of $499,823 from the U.S. Geological Survey's National and Regional Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CFDA 15.820) program supports a research project by the University of Alaska Fairbanks to document, quantify, and map the cumulative effects of climate change, food web changes, and habitat degradation on Yukon River salmon populations. The goal is to identify the most effective local and regional actions to support salmon recovery and the resilience of salmon-dependent communities. Key activities include compiling existing information, collecting new data through local/traditional knowledge, field sampling, and environmental modeling, and developing decision-support tools and outreach products to help managers and communities prioritize recovery efforts. The award runs from January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2027.

Activities

The overarching goal of this study is to document, quantify, and map cumulative effects of climatic, food-web, and habitat stressors constraining recovery of critically depressed salmon populations in the yukon river basin, with a focus on actionable changes that can be influenced by managers and local communities. The projects specific objectives are to: 1) compile existing information to CO-develop a place-based conceptual model of cumulative impacts to salmon and their habitats in the yukon river basin 2) challenge and improve this model with targeted collection of new information from local and traditional knowledge, field sampling, environmental DNA (edna), leveraging models of stream temperature, species distributions, wildfire, and human impacts and 3) develop decision-support tools and outreach products to help fishing communities, tribes, resource managers, and policy makers prioritize actions, geographic hotspots, and critical conditions that are most likely to benefit salmon recovery.deliverables and expected outcomes: research by the project team and others continues to reveal climatic correlates of salmon returns, including river ICE breakup timing, river temperature and discharge, and sea surface temperature, providing valuable evidence towards understanding salmon declines. However, affected communities and resource managers have limited influence over global climate change. There is a strong desire for action at the local and regional levels to benefit salmon and fishing communities now. Although previous research has largely focused on the effects of climate on salmon in isolation, traditional knowledge and western science have repeatedly identified cumulative effects of climate, species interactions, and habitat as important priorities. The project contends that cumulative effects at this nexus are more actionable at the regional and local level than purely climatic drivers. This project addresses a critical information GAP: where, when, and how can local and regional actions most benefit salmon recovery and community resilience?intended beneficiary(IES): tribes, resource managers, and policy-makers