The Range-Wide Bull Trout eDNA Project - USFS RMRS

The bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) is an Endangered Species Act (ESA)-listed species with a historical range that encompasses many waters across the Northwest. Though once abundant, bull trout have declined in many locations and are at risk from a changing climate, non-native species, and habitat degradation. Informed conservation planning relies on sound and precise information about the distribution of bull trout in thousands of streams, but gathering this information is a daunting and expensive task. To overcome this problem, we coupled 1) predictions from the range-wide, spatially precise Climate Shield model on the location of natal habitats of bull trout with 2) a sampling template for every 8-digit hydrologic unit in the historical range of bull trout, based on the probability of detecting bull trout presence using environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling (McKelvey et al. 2016). The template consists of a master set of geospatially referenced sampling locations at 1-km intervals within each cold-water habitat. We also identified sampling locations at this same interval based on the USFWS designation of critical spawning and rearing habitat. Based on field tests of eDNA detection probabilities conducted by the National Genomics Center for Wildlife and Fish Conservation, this sampling approach will reliably determine the presence of populations of bull trout, as well as provide insights on non-spawning habitats used by adult and subadult fish.

The completed bull trout eDNA survey results Online Map allows users to view the survey results in an interactive map. The map provides the ability to zoom in and look at an area of interest, as well as to create queries or select an area to download points as a shapefile. Please note that there are some issues with IE and it's recommended to use a different browser.

• Resource Title: The Range-Wide Bull Trout eDNA Project - USFS RMRS: Online Interactive Map.

  File Name: Web Page, url: https://usfs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=6d5597b2755c4c00a35613b7a1849760

  The completed bull trout eDNA survey results Online Map allows users to view the survey results in an interactive map. The map provides the ability to zoom in and look at an area of interest, as well as to create queries or select an area to download points as a shapefile. Please note that there are some issues with IE and it's recommended to use a different browser. For details on using the map see the The Range-Wide Bull Trout eDNA Project ArcGIS Online Map Guide (PDF).