My name is Rick Taylor. I'm a professor of zoology and a member of the Biodiversity Research Centre and the Beaty Biodiversity Museum here at UBC. My research program focuses on trying to understand the extent of biodiversity. That is, the variety of life, anything from variation in individual DNA sequences to why particular species are found in some areas and not in other areas.

My name is Armando Geraldes. I am a research associate in the Taylor lab at UBC. I use population genetic approaches to address issues relating to adaptation, speciation, and conservation genetics. In particular, I'm really interested in translating fundamental research from academia and bringing it into the real world by developing tools that allow us to address practical, everyday problems.

One of the things I find most satisfying about work here at UBC is that much of our work has implications for conservation, and one of the most satisfying aspects of the work is when we help resource managers make decisions to help mitigate impacts on environments and the biodiversity contained within their. One of the most outstanding examples of this type of work is the long term collaboration, that’s approaching 15 years now that my lab has had with BC Hydro. In trying to better understand the extent and patterns of fish biodiversity in the vicinity of the site C hydro electric development.

My name is Nich Burnett and I'm a fisheries biologist at BC hydro. I manage the Fish and Aquatic Program at site C, which will be the third dam and generating station on the peace river in northeastern British Columbia. Our program is long term and complex, and aims to understand the effects of the construction and operation of site C on the fish and aquatic community, as well as understand the effectiveness of mitigation measures.

In working in the site C area we work on a series of fishes that include, but are not restricted to, three important game fish species. Bull trout, arctic grayling and of course, the iconic rainbow trout. One of the things we've been doing with our genomic studies is to try and understand how different populations of each three of these species are between populations that spawn in tributaries upstream of the dam, compared to fish that spawn in tributaries downstream of the dam.

Our first goal was to generate large amounts of genomic data that would allow us to identify differences between fish that spawn in different streams in the system. With the help of undergraduate students, from the UBC co-op program, we extracted and quantified the DNA of each fish sample sent to us by BC Hydro. We use a specialized protein to cut DNA into small chunks. We then ligated barcodes to the DNA of each fish. We pooled all the DNA together and we sent them out for sequencing. Once we get those sequences, we read through those barcodes with bioinformatic pipelines and sort them into bins, one for each fish. We then mapped the sequences from each fish into the reference genome, and look for differences between the DNA base pairs of each individual. Finally, we use population genetic approaches to look for differences between populations in their DNA sequence.

This has allowed us to develop genomic tools to help managers understand a fish that's caught in the main stem piece river, whether it originated in a tributary upstream of the dam or downstream of the damn. And this is very important because the fish use the tributary streams as spawning and early feeding areas, and then they typically migrate down the tributaries and use the peace river as a kind of fish highway. They move back and forth for feeding or for overwintering.

We found that reading just a dozen or less bases in the genome of each fish allowed us to accurately assign them to a spawning population above or below the dam, and developed cost effective assays to read those base pairs quickly.

Now, of course, the dam is going to sever that volitional migration of the fish upstream and downstream of the dam site, and our genomic assays are going to allow BC Hydro, which has developed a fish passage program, to allow these fish to move upstream of the dam or downstream of the dam to complete their life cycle.

Most importantly, because BC Hydro has been tagging every fish of these species encountered in the peace river for the last few years and sending us a small fin clip, we have been building a large database that records the fish tag ID and whether they belong to a population that spawns above or below the dam. Taking advantage of that information,a fish that is caught in the fish passage facility can quickly be passed upstream or downstream of the dam, so that they can reach their spawning stream and contribute to the next generation of fish in the system.

One of the incredibly valuable aspects of this collaboration with BC Hydro are the tremendous training opportunities that this work permits for graduate students, research associates, and especially co-op students through the UBC co-op program. We've had 5 or 6 co-op students come through the program and learn techniques and gain expertise in areas that are of strategic importance to both British Columbia and Canada. That is skills in genomics and in aquatic resource conservation.

Hi, my name is Aimen and I'm a co-op student. I work as a lab assistant here at Doctor Taylor's lab at UBC. I am a fourth year biology major with a specialization in cell biology and genetics. My role here in the lab is conducting all the extractions from the fish samples we receive from BC hydro. I also conduct the QC and DNA quantification. And then we use that and I make dilutions of the samples and I plate them which will be sent off to genotyping and sequencing.

My biggest takeaway from the project is really the importance of paying attention and making sure that everything is in order, because if things aren't organized, then it could have negative implications on the fish. The data can be invalid and just really paying attention. That helps ensure that everything goes smoothly. My favorite part of the project was working with great people and knowing that my work in the lab has having a positive impact on the environment.

The large database of genomic information we have gathered allows us to use populations genetic tools to assign parents offspring relationship between fish. We can use that information to try to evaluate the effectiveness of the fish passage program. We can determine whether fish there were passed to reach their spawning grounds actually left progeny to contribute to the future generations. We then can compare fish that were passed with fish that were not passed, and see that they contribute equally or more or less to future generations.

BC hydro really values the partnership that we have with UBC. Genetics is a very powerful tool that we are using to help understand the effects of site C and help guide management decisions that promote the sustainability of native fishes. Ultimately, this information will be used for conservation and natural resource management. The province will use this information to better manage fish populations in the region and in British Columbia. BC hydro will use this information to guide decisions related to passing fish upstream of the dam through the use of the permanent upstream fish passage facility. This will help maintain connectivity in the watershed and existing levels of population structure.