Daily Survival Rates for Juveniles of Six Great Plains Cyprinid Species

Abstract

Abstract We collected age‐0 fish from the Canadian and Brazos rivers, Texas, and used otolith microstructure to estimate daily survival rates for juveniles of six cyprinid species during their first summer. Across all samples, daily survival rates averaged 0.944 and ranged from 0.920 to 0.964. Daily survival differed between fish from the Canadian River (mean = 0.948) and those from the Brazos River (mean = 0.936). For the four species collected from the Canadian River, daily survival differed among years. However, there was no difference between years in daily survival of two Brazos River species. Our study provides the first estimates of survival for larval and juvenile Great Plains cyprinids.