Evaluating Coho Salmon in Streams Across an Urbanization Gradient; Part 1, Growth Potential Based on Environmental Factors and Bioenergetics

Physical and chemical changes affect the biota within urban streams at varying scales ranging from individual organisms to populations and communities creating complex interactions that present challenges for characterizing and monitoring the impact on species utilizing these freshwater habitats. Salmonids, specifically cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii) and coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), extensively utilize small stream habitats influenced by a changing urban landscape. This study used a comprehensive fish health assessment concurrent with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Pacific Northwest Stream Quality Assessment in 2015 to quantifiy impacts from disease in juvenile coho and cutthroat salmon, impacts to coho salmon growth within the context of environmental and ecological influences, and identify physiological responses in coho salmon from pollution. The data included in this release informed a study of the influence of near-term environmental condition on the growth of juvenile coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch). It includes the inputs necessary for bioenergetic growth modeling and the output of those models.