High school classrooms help contribute data towards
ongoing research into the cause of thiamine deficiency in Pacific
salmon
Project Duration
2020 – present
Location
Solano, Sacramento, Glenn, Colusa, and Tehama Counties,
California
Background
Thiamine Deficiency Complex (TDC) was first documented in
California’s salmon in 2020, when hatchery staff noticed
offspring swimming in circles and dying at elevated rates. They
traced the condition to a deficiency of thiamine, or vitamin B1,
passed on from the returning adults to their offspring. Impacts
to naturally spawning populations remain the greatest unknown and
could be an unrecognized factor affecting harvest opportunities
and impede salmon recovery.
The Aquarium in the Classroom program through the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife provides students grades K-12
with salmon eggs to hatch and grow in their classrooms. The team
at the Center for Community and Citizen Science, in collaboration
with researchers at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences,
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and
the Department of Fish and Wildlife are developing an Observation
Protocol as part of the Aquariums In the Classroom Program to
help gather observation data of salmon during these critical
stages of the salmon life cycle.
As a part of our work, the data collected through the Aquarium in
the Classroom Program will be sent to support the efforts of the
broad coalition of scientists working on figuring out the TDC
puzzle. The student data contributions to this project are not
only utilizing a citizen science approach to gathering important
data, but also developing further research protocols.
Funders
Gear Up STEM Rural Valley Partnership, NOAA, California
Department of Fish and Wildlife Proposition 1 Agreement
#Q2196012, Anonymous Donors
Partners
Solano County Office of Education, UC Davis Center for Watershed
Sciences, UC Davis School of Education, California Department of
Fish & Wildlife, Solano Land Trust, Fairfield-Suisun Sewer
District, Dye Creek Preserve, Tehama County Resource Conservation
District
Resources
View teaching resources created for the project here.
As scientists investigate the cause
of thiamine deficiency in California’s Central Valley salmon,
high school classrooms across the region were given the unique
opportunity to contribute real-time data to this ongoing
research—thanks to our ongoing partnership with the GEAR UP STEM
Rural Valley Program (RVP).
