Our current research has focused on designing an in-situ salmon development monitoring system the first of its kind

Phase II of our research for this grant will focus on using this system and conducting field and lab work to generate temperature and developmental data necessary for estimating the timing of sockeye developmental milestones for different thermal regimes. These data are valuable for refining thermal developmental models (tdms) for salmon under natural conditions, and in situ thermal regimes. Sparks ET AL. (2019) recently applied non-linear functions to developmental rates across a range of temperatures developing sockeye embryos may experience in the field to predict the effects of climate change on salmon stocks in the bristol BAY watershed. However, the underlying data on developmental rates used for such models (velsen, 1987) is generally based on average incubation temperatures and results in highly variable estimates when used in TDM predictions. Our data will be more representative of actual field conditions and therefore improve the accuracy of hatching and emergence predictions that currently span from october to april and january to june, respectively (sparks ET AL., 2019).to collect these data, we will deploy several incubation boxes in and around lake iliamna in the bristol BAY watershed with sockeye salmon eggs. The system will track development using time lapse photography and record temperature during the entire incubation period from august to late winter or early spring.