Objective

Long-term standardized monitoring programs are fundamental to assessing how fish populations respond to anthropogenic stressors. Standardized monitoring programs may need to adopt new methods to adapt to rapid environmental changes associated with a changing climate. In the upper Yellowstone River, Montana, biologists have used a standardized, mark-recapture monitoring protocol to annually estimate the abundance of trout since 1978 to assess population status and trends. However, within the last two decades, climate change has caused changes in discharge timing that have prevented standardized monitoring from occurring annually.

Methods

We investigated the feasibility of using two analytical methods, N-mixture models and mean capture probability, for estimating the abundance of three trout species in the upper Yellowstone River; these methods allow abundance to be estimated when a mark-recapture estimate cannot be obtained due to hydrologic conditions.

Result

When compared to abundance estimates from mark-recapture methods, N-mixture models most often resulted in negatively biased abundance estimates while mean capture probability analyses resulted in positively biased abundance estimates. Additionally, N-mixture models produced negatively biased estimates compared to true abundance values from simulated datasets. Bias in N-mixture model estimates was caused by poor model fit and variation in capture probability. Bias in mean capture probability estimates was caused by heterogeneity in capture probability that was not accounted for in the models.

Conclusion

N-mixture models and mean capture probability are not viable alternatives for estimating abundance in the upper Yellowstone River. Thus, exploring additional adaptations to sampling methodologies and analytical approaches, including models that require individually marked fish, will be valuable for this system. Climate change will undoubtedly necessitate changes to standardized sampling methods throughout the world; thus, developing alternative sampling and analytical methods will be important for maintaining long-term datasets.