Tag: conservation
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Sacramento Perch: An Experiment in Unconventional Conservation?
By Lynette Williams Duman & Mason Rogers The forgotten panfish of the West Bluegill, redear sunfish, and largemouth bass: these species are familiar and, for many, elicit fond memories of fishing in warm waters on a hot summer’s day. It is for this reason, and others, that California has introduced these sportfishes, and a myriad…
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Wetlands on the Edge
By Andrew L. Rypel It’s really easy to overlook and undervalue wetlands. Some are small or just don’t look very important. Others are enormous, and cause flooding issues for homeowners and growers. Some might even think wetlands are gross, worry about mosquitos and vector borne illness, or have never experienced what it’s like to be…
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Shell-shocking Details About Freshwater Mussel Reproduction
By Andrew L. Rypel, Miranda Bell Tilcock, and Christine A. Parisek One of our favorite aspects of teaching is (occasionally) being able to really surprise a student. Many of the fun nature facts folks pick up nowadays come from TV, YouTube, social media, and other media outlets. But these outlets have an inherent bias: they…
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Hidden links between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems: part 2 – Sacramento River
By Nicholas Wright Running through the Central Valley’s patchwork of yellow, green, and brown farmlands is the deep blue of California’s largest river–the Sacramento. Once a much wider river, meandering across the flat valley floor, the Sacramento has been straight-jacketed by steep earthen levees and confined to a more controlled channel. On either side of…
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Will more wildfire and precipitation extremes mussel-out California’s freshwater streams?
By Andrew J. Lawrence and Andrew L. Rypel Apocalyptic scenes of wildfires and floods are now familiar to Californians. However, the ecological impacts from these events remain understudied in California and across the world. Gaps in awareness and understanding on the issue are especially intense for freshwater mussels, whose cryptic and sedentary life-histories belie their…
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Defending ‘Rough Fish’
by Andrew L. Rypel Have any of you ever reached a tipping point with some topic, issue, or bone-to-pick? Well, one benefit of being a tenured professor is the ability to speak up when you feel like the science or data call for it. And so, after many years of silent stewing, I finally decided…
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Science of an underdog: the improbable comeback of spring-run Chinook salmon in the San Joaquin River
By Andrew L. Rypel, Gabriel Singer, and Nann A. Fangue “You can’t design a worse evolutionary strategy for the Anthropocene” There are many variants on this quote, and we’ve heard them often in reference to the status of native fishes in California and other freshwater organisms worldwide. Indeed, the statement rings true for Pacific salmon,…
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Sometimes, studying the variation is the interesting thing
By Andrew L. Rypel As scientists, we’re trained to key in on ‘response variables’. In my case, fisheries scientists often examine how fish physiology, populations, communities or whole ecosystems react to various environmental drivers or human alteration. Unfortunately, variation in data is too frequently looked upon as a nuisance, an after thought, or worse –…
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A Swiss Cheese Model for Fish Conservation in California
by Andrew L. Rypel, Peter B. Moyle, and Jay Lund We read with great interest Nicholas Chistakis’s piece outlining a “Swiss Cheese Model For Combating Covid-19” in the Wall Street Journal. Christakis presents a model for considering the individual steps needed to achieve a larger goal, and how each step should fit into a larger…
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New insights into Putah Creek salmon
by Malte Willmes, Anna Steel, Levi Lewis, Peter B. Moyle, and Andrew L. Rypel It’s November 2016, and we’re out in canoes on Putah Creek as part of the annual salmon survey. Just as we navigate our watercraft through a narrow river section using push poles, thorny blackberry bushes and trees begin to close in…