SacPAS Fish Model

Criterion

Explanation

General Description

The SacPAS Fish Model begins with egg deposition at the time of spawning where development rate and survival are controlled by various methods to determine fry emergence timing and survival. The user controls temperature inputs, redd/carcass/adult counts, and survival details for egg development modeling. The output of this emergence sub-model becomes the input for a migration sub-model where flow drives movements and survival. The migration sub-model is based on the COMPASS model for the Columbia River.

Model Domain

Model domain is flexible but currently configured for winter-run Chinook Salmon in Sacramento River

Developer

Columbia Basin Research (University of Washington) for Bureau of Reclamation

Hardware computing requirements

Not specified

Code language

Not specified (but COMPASS written in C)

Original application

The Sacramento Prediction and Assessment of Salmon (SacPAS) data and analysis tools were developed specifically to assist managers and interested parties in understanding and forecasting salmon emergence, migration, and survival. It is a suite of integrated tools for data selection and manipulation, coupled to a spawning-to-emergence model and a juvenile migration model.

Public/proprietary and cost

Model is publicly available through web interface at no cost

Physically or empirically based

Mechanistic and empirical

Mathematical methods used

For the emergence timing sub-model, users can select from four options. One is a mechanistic model based on temperature and egg depletion. The other three options are empirical models taking polynomial, power, or linear forms. For the egg/juvenile survival sub-model, users can choose among three options. One option is constant survival. Another option includes temperature and a linear spawner density effect. The last option uses a Beverton-Holt spawner density effect. Empirical model of flow-velocity relationship. The in-river survival sub-model is based on the XT survival model but requires mapping XT model parameters to the internal survival parameters of the COMPASS model.

Input data requirements

The primary input data requirements are water temperature and temporal spawning distribution.

Outputs

Temporal distributions of spawning, fry emergence, fry arrival at RBDD, and fry arrival at Feather River. Total redds, total eggs, mean emergence day, and overall survival from egg to RBDD. Results can be exported from the web app as text files (CSV or TXT) and figures can be saved as image files (PNG).

Pre-processing and post-processing tools

No processing tools provided (aside from the web interface)

Representation of uncertainty

Uncertainty not incorporated

Prevalence

Bureau of Reclamation uses SacPas for in-season management of winter run Chinook Salmon.

Ease of use for public entities

Model is easily accessible through internet. No special hardware or training are required.

Ease of obtaining information and availability of technical support

No user group or commercial help desk

Source code availability

Not available

Status of model development

Model is available for immediate use. Calibration of in-river survival sub-model is ongoing. Future versions may include migration from other rivers, option to select other spawning grounds, and more control over parameters in egg development sub models.

Challenges for integration

The primary barrier to integration is that the source code is not publicly available. However, integration via the web interface is tractable.