Rapid Assessment of Millicoma Dace Conservation Status. Scheerer, P., D., Peterson, J., T., & Clements, S., P. Technical Report ODFW, 2014.
Rapid Assessment of Millicoma Dace Conservation Status [pdf]Paper  Rapid Assessment of Millicoma Dace Conservation Status [link]Website  abstract   bibtex   
The Millicoma dace (Rhinichthys cataractae) is a form of longnose dace endemic to the Coos River drainage in southwestern Oregon. Sparse species records in the Oregon State University Ichthyology Collection and infrequent recent encounters prompted a survey to assess the current status and distribution of these fish. We surveyed locations that had historically supported Millicoma dace using backpack electrofishing to document presence/absence, estimate dace capture and detection probabilities and abundance, and conduct a power analysis to inform future sampling design. We used an N-mixture model to estimate abundance and capture probability for Millicoma dace at each sampling location. We evaluated the effects of habitat covariates on both capture probability and abundance at each sample site. We found Millicoma dace were widespread and relatively abundant throughout their historical range. We only found Millicoma dace associated with native fishes; we did not collect any nonnative fish during our surveys. We collected Millicoma dace exclusively from swift water habitats, which were relatively uncommon in the basin, and found them typically associated with cobble or boulder substrates. Millicoma dace were most abundant in the South Fork Coos and West Fork Millicoma River subbasins. Abundance estimates ranged from 19 to 720 dace per sampling location with a total estimated abundance (sum of site estimates) of over 4,100 dace for the sites we sampled. We estimated a mean capture probability for Millicoma dace of 10% (range 3–13%). Model simulations to inform future sampling design had little power to detect declines in abundance using a 2-state design (present/absent), improved power using a 3-state occupancy design (absent/rare/abundant), and the best power using an N-mixture design.

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