Lab News

Congratulations to Tim Jäger on his magnificent Master’s defense! His thesis examined life-history plasticity of stream insects to future climates in the Sierra Nevada. Earlier snowmelt and return to low-flow conditions will likely lead to earlier peaks and smaller size at emergence. It was not a (chirono)mini undertaking as Tim processed thousands of individuals! We can’t wait to see what this newly emerged MSc flies off to do next!

A new Nature Sustainability study by Lucy Andrews and Ted Grantham found that only 8% of all rivers and streams in California are monitored by stream gauges that measure flow. Lead author Lucy told the LA Times, “More monitoring of these critical streams is needed to protect these vulnerable species. If we maintain the status quo, and if we don’t know how much water is in rivers and streams, we are essentially dooming some of our freshwater species.” The papers also outlined a method to improve stream monitoring and modeled a reconfigured gauging network across the state.

A robust contingent from the Berkeley Freshwater group participated in the Society for Freshwater Science Annual Meeting in Philadelphia! We presented talks on a variety of topics: estuarine phenological shifts by Robert, riparian tree-groundwater interactions at Pinnacles by Rose, effects of drought on Sierra Nevada stream communities by Kyle, flow variation and riparian birds in Southern California rivers by Melissa, and time-varying effects of Delta outflow on Longfin smelt by Parsa. It looks like they also managed to sneak in some sightseeing!

Melissa’s doctoral research project is titled “Understanding Flow-Ecology Relationships to Inform the Restoration of Effluent-Influenced Coastal Streams in Southern California.” She is quantifying how changes in flows along the Los Angeles and Santa Clara Rivers may affect birds, invertebrates, and plants. Additionally, she is exploring people’s perceptions of and priorities for flows along these rivers. Melissa’s work will assist environmental managers in understanding the socio-ecological implications of changes in riverine flows and investigate how flow can be used as a restoration tool in the context of these two sister rivers.

Left: Melissa conducts bird point counts along the Santa Clara River / Right: A great egret rests along an effluent-influenced part of the Los Angeles River

Congratulations to Emily, Rachael, Kyle, Jessie, and Lucy on their graduation! We are thrilled to celebrate the graduation of our incredible cohort of Freshwater PhDs! This amazing group proudly walked in the May 2024 commencement ceremony at The Greek Theater, adorned in full regalia. We can’t wait to see what exciting paths you each embark on next!

Congrats to Emily Chen, who delivered her finishing talk today to a packed audience! Her talk covered an overview of the different elements of her dissertation research, including dimensions focused on all four runs of Chinook in California’s Central Valley. Emily is on track to finish this summer and will then begin a postdoc exploring factors influencing the dynamics of Chinook salmon in the Klamath Basin. (PC: Rachael Ryan)

FishBio covered our recent work exploring the Central Valley hatchery steelhead portfolio, led by former student Eric Huber (now with the US Fish & Wildlife Service) and including contributions from Rachael Ryan and Stephanie along with our partners with UC Davis and NOAA-Fisheries. Similar to our earlier work with hatchery Chinook (Huber and Carlson 2015), we found a simplification of the Central Valley steelhead hatchery portfolio through time. You can find the blog post here: https://fishbio.com/enhancing-diversity-to-promote-steelhead-resilience/

Huge congratulations to Amy Fingerle on her new California Sea Grant Graduate Student Fellowship! You can learn more about this important collaboration and research here: “Collaborative Conservation of Ishyâat in a Spring-Run Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) Stronghold“.

Stephanie and Gabe Rossi joined Curtis Knight, the Executive Director of California Trout, on CalTrout’s “Fish Water People” podcast for a fun and rambling conversation about the importance of science in salmon recovery efforts. You can listen to the full episode here: https://caltrout.org/podcast