Dataset Information

Transhemispheric ecosystem disservices of pink salmon in a Pacific Ocean macrosystem.

ABSTRACT: Pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) in the North Pacific Ocean have flourished since the 1970s, with growth in wild populations augmented by rising hatchery production. As their abundance has grown, so too has evidence that they are having important effects on other species and on ocean ecosystems. In alternating years of high abundance, they can initiate pelagic trophic cascades in the northern North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea and depress the availability of common prey resources of other species of salmon, resident seabirds, and other pelagic species. We now propose that the geographic scale of ecosystem disservices of pink salmon is far greater due to a 15,000-kilometer transhemispheric teleconnection in a Pacific Ocean macrosystem maintained by short-tailed shearwaters (Ardenna tenuirostris), seabirds that migrate annually between their nesting grounds in the South Pacific Ocean and wintering grounds in the North Pacific Ocean. Over this century, the frequency and magnitude of mass mortalities of shearwaters as they arrive in Australia, and their abundance and productivity, have been related to the abundance of pink salmon. This has influenced human social, economic, and cultural traditions there, and has the potential to alter the role shearwaters play in insular terrestrial ecology. We can view the unique biennial pulses of pink salmon as a large, replicated, natural experiment that offers basin-scale opportunities to better learn how these ecosystems function. By exploring trophic interaction chains driven by pink salmon, we may achieve a deeper conservation conscientiousness for these northern open oceans.

SUBMITTER: Springer AM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5984504 | biostudies-literature | 2018 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Transhemispheric ecosystem disservices of pink salmon in a Pacific Ocean macrosystem.

Springer Alan M AM van Vliet Gus B GB Bool Natalie N Crowley Mike M Fullagar Peter P Lea Mary-Anne MA Monash Ross R Price Cassandra C Vertigan Caitlin C Woehler Eric J EJ

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20180514 22

Pink salmon (<i>Oncorhynchus gorbuscha</i>) in the North Pacific Ocean have flourished since the 1970s, with growth in wild populations augmented by rising hatchery production. As their abundance has grown, so too has evidence that they are having important effects on other species and on ocean ecosystems. In alternating years of high abundance, they can initiate pelagic trophic cascades in the northern North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea and depress the availability of common prey resources of o ...[more]

PMID: 29760093

Similar Datasets

Project description:The long-term viability of Pacific salmon stocks and the fisheries they support are threatened if large numbers die prematurely en-route to spawning grounds. Physiological profiles that were correlated with the fate of wild sockeye salmon during river migration were discovered using functional genomics studies on biopsied tissues. Three independent biotelemetry studies tracked the biopsied fish after tagging in the marine environment over 200 km from the Fraser River, in the lower river 69 km from the river mouth and at the spawning grounds. Salmon carrying the poor performance (unhealthy) profile in the ocean exhibited a 4-times lower probability of arriving to spawning grounds than those with a healthy genomic signature, although generally migrated into the river and to the spawning grounds faster. A related unhealthy signature observed in the river was associated with a 30% reduction in survival to spawning grounds in one of the three stocks tested. At spawning grounds, the same poor performance signature was associated with twice the pre-spawning mortality compared with healthy fish. Functional analysis revealed that the unhealthy signature, which intensified during migration to spawning grounds, was consistent with an intracellular pathogenic infection, likely a virus. These results are the first to suggest a pathogen present in salmon in the marine environment could be a major source of mortality during migration and spawning in the river. This series is of gill expression profiles from the study of fish sampled and tagged in the ocean and tracked as they entered the river system and swam towards the spawning grounds. Fish were caught in seine nets, gastrically implanted with radio transmitters, and biopsy sampled for blood, gill, muscle, and fin. Individual fish were tracked by receivers placed throughout the Fraser River watershed to identify and fate (i.e. the location of the receiver that last detected the fish). Targeted stocks of interest were genetically identified. Gene expression was profiled in gill tissue, a critical respiratory and ionoregulatory organ that is highly responsive to stress, chemical exposure and disease. Gene expression was assayed on the GRASP salmonid 16K cDNA microarray.

Project description:Pacific salmon influence temperate terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems through the dispersal of marine-derived nutrients and ecosystem engineering of stream beds when spawning. They also support large fisheries, particularly along the west coast of North America. We provide a comprehensive synthesis of relationships between the densities of Pacific salmon and terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, summarize the direction, shape, and magnitude of these relationships, and identify possible ecosystem-based management indicators and benchmarks. We found 31 studies that provided 172 relationships between salmon density (or salmon abundance) and species abundance, species diversity, food provisioning, individual growth, concentration of marine-derived isotopes, nutrient enhancement, phenology, and several other ecological responses. The most common published relationship was between salmon density and marine-derived isotopes (40%), whereas very few relationships quantified ecosystem-level responses (5%). Only 13% of all relationships tended to reach an asymptote (i.e., a saturating response) as salmon densities increased. The number of salmon killed by bears and the change in biomass of different stream invertebrate taxa between spawning and nonspawning seasons were relationships that usually reached saturation. Approximately 46% of all relationships were best described with linear or curved nonasymptotic models, indicating a lack of saturation. In contrast, 41% of data sets showed no relationship with salmon density or abundance, including many of the relationships with stream invertebrate and biofilm biomass density, marine-derived isotope concentrations, or vegetation density. Bears required the highest densities of salmon to reach their maximum observed food consumption (i.e., 9.2 kg/m2 to reach the 90% threshold of the relationship's asymptote), followed by freshwater fish abundance (90% threshold = 7.3 kg/m2 of salmon). Although the effects of salmon density on ecosystems are highly varied, it appears that several of these relationships, such as bear food consumption, could be used to develop indicators and benchmarks for ecosystem-based fisheries management.

Project description:BackgroundInfection with the myxozoan parasite Parvicapsula pseudobranchicola causes disease in wild and farmed salmonids in Norway. In the northeast Pacific Ocean, the parasite has been reported in Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. without evidence of disease. The objectives of the present study were to confirm the identity of P. pseudobranchicola in the Pacific, document its host and geographic ranges, and describe associated pathological changes.MethodsOcean-entry year wild pink salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha, chum salmon O. keta, Chinook salmon O. tshawytscha, coho salmon O. kisutch and sockeye salmon O. nerka were collected in summer and autumn surveys near Vancouver Island (VI) and from a winter survey in the Gulf of Alaska. Samples were also obtained from farmed Atlantic salmon Salmo salar and Chinook salmon near VI. Samples were analysed by qPCR and histology using conventional staining or in situ hybridisation. Parasite sequence was obtained from small subunit ribosomal RNA gene (SSU rDNA).ResultsIdentical 1525 base-pair SSU rDNA sequences from infected pink salmon, chum salmon and Chinook salmon shared 99.93% identity with a P. pseudobranchicola sequence from Norwegian Atlantic salmon. In autumn surveys, the prevalence was greatest in chum salmon (91.8%) and pink salmon (85.9%) and less so in Chinook salmon (68.8%) and sockeye salmon (8.3%). In farmed salmon, the prevalence was zero in Atlantic salmon (n = 967) and 41% in Chinook salmon (n = 118). Infections were preferentially sited in pseudobranch and visualised by in situ hybridisation. Heavy parasite burdens in all species of Pacific salmon were inconsistently associated with focal granulomatous pseudobranchitis.ConclusionsIn the northeast Pacific, widespread occurrence of P. pseudobranchicola in Pacific salmon together with its absence or sporadic occurrence in farmed Atlantic salmon differs from its epidemiology in Norway, despite similar pathological development in the pseudobranch. Consequences of the infections to the health of wild Pacific salmon, identity of the invertebrate host and the distribution and abundance of infective actinospores are unknown and remain high priorities for research.

Dataset Information

Transhemispheric ecosystem disservices of pink salmon in a Pacific Ocean macrosystem.

Publications

Transhemispheric ecosystem disservices of pink salmon in a Pacific Ocean macrosystem.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets