Scientific framework for assessing factors influencing endangered Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) across the life cycle

California's Central Valley Interagency Ecology Program (IEP) formed multi-agency Salmon and Sturgeon Assessment of Indicators by Life Stage (SAIL) synthesis teams to develop a scientific framework for evaluating existing information on endangered Sacramento River winter-run Chinook salmon (SRWRC; Oncorhynchus tshawytscha), green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris), and white sturgeon (A. transmontanus) and provide recommendations to improve the management value of life stage monitoring. Developing the SAIL framework for SRWRC and sturgeon followed parallel approaches that included three steps. First, existing conceptual models (CMs) were reviewed and modified to characterize specific environmental and management factors that drive SRWRC responses within discrete geographic domains and life stages. Second, the existing monitoring network was compared to fish demographic responses in the CMs to identify deficiencies. The deficiencies were interpreted as gaps in the existing network that prevent annual, quantitative, population-level metrics from being developed that are needed to support water management actions, assess population viability, and prioritize population recovery actions among geographic domains across the freshwater landscape. Lastly, identified absences were used to develop recommendations on ways to improve the scientific and management value of the current monitoring network. This document comprises the first of these steps for the SRWRC portion of the SAIL projects. It consolidates all the CMs developed by the SAIL synthesis team and their associated narratives. [doi:10.7289/V5/TM-SWFSC-586(http://doi.org/10.7289/V5/TM-SWFSC-586)]