Chris Hoagstrom

Northeastern Utah Stream Research

Sorting fish from Rock Creek (with Nathan Holmes)

In summer 2007, several students (Targhee Boss, Nathan Holmes, Skyler Johnson, Sam Sparks) and I completed fish and habitat surveys of sixteen wadeable streams distributed throughout northeastern Utah.  The research was funded by small grants from the Weber State University Research, Scholarship, and Professional Growth committee and Office of Undergraduate Research.  The stream sites we surveyed were paired with U.S. Geological survey gaging stations, from which we collected additional habitat data.  Skyler and Sam compiled and entered the data the following Fall Semester and Skyler presented a poster at two conferences (WSU Undergraduate Research Symposium, Utah Posters at the State Capitol).  Nathan conducted a series of morphological measurements on two species of sculpin (genus Cottus), which led to him giving four oral presentations at local and regional meetings (WSU Undergraduate Research Symposium, Utah Chapters of the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting, Western Division of the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting, Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research).  He and I are working together to identify relations between habitat conditions, fish assemblages, and sculpin morphology and have recently submitted a manuscript for potential publication.  I have also given five oral presentations based on this data (WSU Faculty Forum, Utah Chapter of the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting, Western Division American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting, Desert Fishes Council) and submitted another manuscript for potential publication (in other words, stay tuned).