Blog: CDFW is partnering on experimental programs to aid listed Chinook salmon recovery during the drought and help ensure long-term resiliency
Climate change including multi-year droughts, extreme flooding, and extreme weather swings negatively impact California. Aridification of our ecosystem, and multi-year droughts are damaging to cold-water-dependent species such as Chinook salmon. Such is the case with the current drought we are experiencing, which has exacerbated the stressors impacting the Sacramento River’s threatened spring-run Chinook salmon and endangered winter-run Chinook salmon. These stressors include the inability to maintain suitable water temperatures, increased predation, and diminished habitat quantity and quality. Coupled with drought impacts in freshwater is the recently discovered thiamine deficiency in adult Chinook returning from the ocean which impacts the health of their offspring.