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!
News
Plans for water equity in a warming world
A collaborative research project led by Cooperative Extension professor Ted Grantham will develop new planning tools for sustainable, inclusive, and equitable water distribution for the state’s nearly 40 million residents. See the full story on the University of California website.
Emily Chen delivers her finishing talk on “Population Dynamics of California’s Central Valley Chinook Salmon”!
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)
Don’t Put All Your (Fish) Eggs in One Basket: Enhancing Diversity to Promote Steelhead Resilience
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/
Congrats to Amy Fingerle on receiving a California Sea Grant Graduate Student Fellowship!
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“.
Insects, algae and our changing climate
A new PNAS study led by ESPM professor Albert Ruhi and grad student Kyle Leathers suggests that drought may reshape California’s mountain waterways—and the ecosystems that depend on them—by the end of the century. Read more in this Berkeley News press release.
Stephanie and Gabe join Curtis Knight on the CalTrout “Fish Water People” podcast
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
Does dry season water augmentation in flow-impaired streams benefit fish?
Yes it does! Read our recent publication in the North American Journal of Fisheries Management led by Gabe Rossi: Flow augmentation from off-channel storage improves salmonid habitat and survival.
COEQWAL Project Launch
The Collaboratory for Equity in Water Allocations (COEQWAL) project was launched in the fall. To learn more about the project, visit coeqwal.berkeley.edu and read this Q+A article with Maven’s Notebook journalist Janet Byron.
“Wild Fry: A Conversation with Dr. Stephanie Carlson” featured by the Wild Salmon Center
A conversation with Stephanie was recently featured by the Wild Salmon Center, where Stephanie currently serves on the Science Advisory Board. Through the conversation, Stephanie highlights the importance of habitat mosaics, including “stop over” sites, for supporting a diversity of salmon migratory tactics and life histories. You can find the full conversation here!