River features associated with chinook salmon spawning habitat in Southwest Alaska

Abstract

Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) is a highly valued traditional, subsistence, and commercial resource in Southwest Alaska. Stream habitat availability is a major component influencing salmon productivity. The objective of this study is to identify river features associated with spawning habitat, and describe upper and lower boundaries of chinook salmon spawning on the Tuluksak River. River distances, elevation, salmon locations, spawning sites, and habitat observations were collected along 75 river kilometers of the Tuluksak River primarily within the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge. Habitat and salmon observations were grouped into strata along the length of the river for comparison and analysis. Chinook salmon were observed spawning in the upper 45 river kilometers of the study area. Map-based observations of elevation and channel sinuosity correlate better with chinook salmon spawning than in stream habitat measurements along the Tuluksak River. The upper boundary of chinook salmon spawning in the Tuluksak River was outside of our study area. The lower boundary for chinook salmon spawning habitat on similar rivers might be determined by examining elevation, sinuosity, and channel features from remote images or maps prior to conducting field studies.