Revolutionary Techniques Using Environmental DNA Are Analysing Entire Ecosystems 26/04/2021
Representative image of an underwater ecosystem. Photo: Hung Tran/Pexels
Hilary Starks couldn’t wait to get her first three samples of the day. She was standing expectantly on the deck of the 117-foot research vessel
Western Flyer in 2015, searching the waters of California’s Monterey Bay below. The winch on deck started moving as pulleys and wires slowly lifted what she was waiting for: a five-foot submersible carrying large plastic bottles full of seawater.
Starks, then a lab technician at Stanford University, knew that there were myriad bits of genetic information floating in the one-liter bottles, hidden to human eyes. And modern DNA-deciphering machines would later reveal secrets about the ecosystem the
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Our central valley runs of salmon and steelhead are cyclical in nature. We get good years like the last couple for steelhead on the Lower Yuba and we get poor years such as the recent salmon runs. Despite the up and down nature of the returns the overall trend is down. There are a lot of factors that affect the fish returns such as winter precipitation, water diversions, predation of the migrating juveniles, ocean temperatures and food chain … some of these factors we can affect and some we can’t.
Project location beyond angler Bill McCrea, 2019. Bill is fishing 100 yards below DaGuerre Dam.
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By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism. Salmon Restoration Effort Gets Go Ahead Council Approval
Oakdale City Council members unanimously approved moving forward with Phase II of the Stanislaus River Salmonid Habitat Restoration Project at Monday night’s council meeting, April 5, which will put an additional $361,400 of grant funding into play for the extensive project.
According to city documents, in 2018-2019, the City of Oakdale was awarded a grant through the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) in the amount of $341,036 to financially support and assist the implementation of the Stanislaus River Salmonid Habitat Restoration Project (River Restoration Project) at the Stanley Wakefield Wilderness Area. These grant funds were to be utilized to fund the efforts to provide baseline data and analysis for 100 percent desig