This is a continuation of 2017 and 2018 CREOi-funded projects. Olympic mudminnow (Novumbra hubbsi), Washington State’s only endemic freshwater fish, is a small-bodied species (maximum total length of 90 mm) found exclusively in low-elevation wetlands and slow-moving waters. Its geographic range, limited to the southwestern and northern coastal portions of the state, is the smallest range of the five known mudminnow species worldwide. This limited distribution and some evidence of population decline led to the species being listed in 1999 as state “Sensitive”, indicating vulnerability or risk for decline and likelihood of becoming endangered or threatened in a significant portion of its range without management or removal of threats. Over the past two decades, limited resources for research on non-game species has resulted in sparse research and only sporadic monitoring, leaving many unresolved questions related to mudminnow conservation status and threats. This project aimed to create and launch an open-access information system that allows data dissemination to support ongoing science and management and enhance public awareness of Olympic mudminnow.
We created a repository for monitoring data (Olympic Mudminnow Information System) and developed a habitat suitability model to identify environmental factors related to mudminnow presence and areas where habitat may be limited. The repository provides the first-ever access to all known distributional data regarding Olympic mudminnow collected over the period 1933-2020. We assembled a database of all survey records from fish sampling efforts where Olympic mudminnow were a focal species. Fish, environmental, and method data from individual surveys were extracted at the greatest level of detail available and incorporated into a spatially-explicit database. Data was used to develop a species distribution models to project habitat suitability for Olympic mudminnow across its entire range. This indicated that mudminnow are largely restricted to low-elevation, emergent wetland habitats. We found that prevalence of (modeled) suitable habitat varies starkly across the three conservation units, with the Chehalis region offering the greatest total amount of suitable habitat.
We continue to work closely with state and federal agencies, tribes, and nonprofits on this work, both to communicate status of the research and lay the groundwork to implement collaborative monitoring and proactive conservation. A series of meetings with our partners were held to report the findings of the project and demonstrate the data portal platform to allow for distributional data to be downloaded. Results from the habitat modeling exercise and conservation assessment are currently being published. ($20,000)