Abstract
Methods/Materials
-Copies of raw data about the fish, taken daily by many observers from San Lorenzo Valley High School
and the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project at the fish trap in Felton during spawning season since
2000
-Data available online from the United States Geological Survey about daily local average stream flow
near Felton
-Information on salmonid lifecycles and the factors that affect them, from various sources, including Don
Alley et al.
-Fathom statistical software, (student ed.)
-OpenOffice Calc/Writer/Impress
-Microsoft Excel
-VUE mind-mapping software
-TI-89 Platinum graphing calculator
-Python 2.5.4 programming language
Results
The effort to simulate fish populations has been successful. A rough sensitivity analysis of the simulation indicates that the most important factors that affect salmonid migrations are streamflow and sedimentation. The results obtained from the simulation are not more accurate than the statistical model that considers only streamflow. However, the simulation has the advantage of being able to predict fish populations at all stages of their lifecycle. In addition, the simulation could also be recalibrated fairly easily to a wide variety of other rivers and streams.
Conclusions/Discussion
Statistical methods, such as those that I presented in my research last year, accurately predict the relative frequency of the timing of fish populations migrating upstream when the explanatory variable, streamflow, is simple. By simulating the fish populations instead, a reasonable degree of accuracy is acheived.
This Mathematical project is a summative statistical and simulation analysis of critically endangered fish populations in the San Lorenzo Valley River.
Science Fair Project done By Ian J. Mallett