Response to Comment on “Assessing the potential for Smallmouth Bass population establishment in Grand Canyon”

Lay Summary Yackulic et al. (2026) acknowledge that the timing of turbidity events may limit Smallmouth Bass, but their analysis focuses mainly on how often warm, turbid days occur, not when they occur during the early life growing season. We show that turbidity in Marble and Grand canyons is often concentrated in late summer and fall during the monsoon season, directly overlapping the period when young Smallmouth Bass must feed and grow before their first winter. In contrast, turbidity at the gauged Green River comparison sites we evaluated, including near Jensen, Utah, often occurs earlier in the season as a result of spring snowmelt runoff. We also show that Green River–like Smallmouth Bass densities could reduce juvenile Humpback Chub survival, but the predicted survival rates fall within the range of conditions Grand Canyon Humpback Chub experienced in the past, when populations declined but persisted and later increased.