Estimating kinship and spawner abundance of warm-water nonnatives.project period: 09 19 2025 - 04 30 2028 award purpose - the goals of this project are to: (1) estimate the number of adult breeders…

New Mexico State University received a $155,339.81 Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Office of Acquisitions and Grants under the Cooperative Research Units Program (CFDA 15.812) for the period September 19, 2025 through April 30, 2028. The project, "Estimating Kinship and Spawner Abundance of Warm-Water Nonnatives," will deliver genetic analysis services and population dynamics research on smallmouth bass at Lees Ferry in support of the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program. The university will work with contracted genomics laboratories to process fin clip samples from approximately 2,000 smallmouth bass using Restriction site Associated DNA Sequencing (RAD-SEQ) and Genotyping by Sequencing (GT-SEQ) technologies to develop genetic marker panels and reconstruct family relationships. These activities will generate population estimates, breeding hotspot analyses, and determinations of whether smallmouth bass populations originate locally or from Lake Powell entrainment.

The project will produce annual reports and a final report to USGS, along with at least one manuscript draft for submission to a scientific journal documenting the research findings. The intended beneficiaries include the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Arizona Game and Fish Department, and stakeholders of the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program. The research will directly inform smallmouth bass removal efforts, entrainment prevention strategies, and evaluation of the 2024 CoolMix flow experiment designed to manage invasive warm-water fish populations.

Estimating kinship and spawner abundance of warm-water nonnatives.project period: 09 19 2025 - 04 30 2028 award purpose - the goals of this project are to: (1) estimate the number of adult breeders over a single reproductive cycle year, and any changes to effective population breeding size over time, which will inform smallmouth bass removal efforts and future experimental bass flows (2) determine how much entrainment is influencing the lees ferry smallmouth bass population, which will inform removal efforts as well as entrainment prevention efforts and (3) evaluate the success of the coolmix flow experiment in 2024. Activities to be performed - these will include working with contracted genomics laboratories to use FIN clip samples from smallmouth bass to produce RAD-SEQ data. Suitable snps from RAD-SEQ data will be used to develop a GT-SEQ genetic marker panel. This panel will then be used to do production genotyping for approximately 2,000 smallmouth bass samples, as budgets allow. The postdoc will use these data to reconstruct smallmouth bass families, estimate NE and NB, determine whether smallmouth bass are locally produced or likely came from lake powell, and explore breeding hot spots and other diversity questions. Deliverables and expected outcomes - annual reports and a final report to USGS, and at least one manuscript draft for submission to a scientific journal. Intended beneficiary(IES) bureau of reclamation, U.S. Fish and wildlife service, national park service, arizona game and fish department, and stakeholders of the glen canyon DAM adaptive management program. Subrecipient activities, if known or specified at the time of award - NA