Growth variation of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar at sea affects their population-specific reproductive potential

Jacobson, Philip; Whitlock, Rebecca; Huss, Magnus; Leonardsson, Kjell; Gårdmark, Anna

doi:10.3354/meps13734

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 44 publications

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“…Rather, the amount of deviance explained by the models decreased from one season at sea to the next, suggesting that the variability between individual growth trajectories increases with progression through the seasons. Similarly, some heterogeneity in marine growth between neighboring populations was also reported across the North Atlantic Ocean (Friedland et al, 2009;Vollset et al, 2022) and the Baltic Sea (Jacobson et al, 2021). This heterogeneity between populations questions whether the information from intensive surveys on a few index rivers should be used to inform management actions on other rivers where no information is available.…”

Section: Response Variablementioning

confidence: 98%

A multi‐population approach supports common patterns in marine growth and maturation decision in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) from southern Europe

Tréhin,

Rivot,

Santanbien

et al. 2023

Journal of Fish Biology

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This study provides a regional picture of long‐term change in Atlantic salmon growth at the southern edge of their distribution, using a multi‐population approach spanning 49 years and 5 populations. We provide empirical evidence of salmon life history being influenced by a combination of common signals in the marine environment, as well as population‐specific signals. We identified an abrupt decline in growth from 1976 and a more recent decline after 2005. As these declines have also been recorded in northern European populations, our study significantly expands a pattern of declining marine growth to include southern European populations, thereby revealing a large‐scale synchrony in marine growth patterns for almost 5 decades. Growth increments during their sea sojourn were characterised by distinct temporal dynamics. At a coarse temporal resolution, growth during the first winter at sea seemed to gradually improve over the study period. However, analysis of finer seasonal growth patterns revealed ecological bottlenecks of salmon life histories at sea in time and space. Our study reinforces existing evidence of an impact of early marine growth on maturation decision, with individuals of small size at the end of the first summer at sea being more likely to delay maturation. However, each population was characterised by a specific probabilistic maturation reaction norm, and a local component of growth at sea in which some populations have better growth in some years, might further amplify differences in maturation rate. Differences between populations were smaller than the differences between sexes, suggesting that sex‐specific growth threshold for maturation is a well‐conserved evolutionary phenomenon in salmon. Finally, our results illustrate that although most of the gain in length occurs during the first summer at sea, the temporal variability in body length at return is buffered against the decrease in post‐smolt growth conditions. The intricate combination of growth over successive seasons, and its interplay with the maturation decision, could be regulating body length by maintaining diversity in early growth trajectories, life histories, and the composition of salmon populations.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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Section: Response Variablementioning

confidence: 98%

A multi‐population approach supports common patterns in marine growth and maturation decision in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) from southern Europe

Tréhin,

Rivot,

Santanbien

et al. 2023

Journal of Fish Biology

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Food quality andvgll3genotype influence reproductive traits in female Atlantic salmon

Maamela,

Åsheim,

O’Sullivan

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Age at maturity is an important factor contributing to life-history diversity. In Atlantic salmon, this trait often shows sex-specific variation, but female salmon are seldom included in experimental studies of maturation. As a result, there is a gap in our knowledge of how different genetic and environmental factors affect female maturation. Using a 4-year common-garden experiment, we assessed the influence of diet (low-fat vs. control) andvgll3(a candidate gene in a genomic region known to influence age at maturity in Atlantic salmon) on maturation and related phenotypic traits of female Atlantic salmon from two 2nd-generation hatchery populations. We found the early-maturation-associatedvgll3*E allele to be associated with higher probability of maturation. Heritability of maturation was estimated to be 0.295 withvgll3’s contribution to phenotypic variance being ∼2%. In addition, both body size and body condition measured in the spring prior to spawning influenced maturation. Body condition, in turn, was influenced by population and diet. The northern Oulu population and the low-fat diet were associated with lower body condition compared to the southern Neva population and the control diet. Moreover, there was an interaction between population and diet on body condition, suggesting that populations may respond differently to nutrient availability. These results broaden our understanding of the processes underlying maturation and demonstrate that genes and environment interact to shape age at maturity in female Atlantic salmon.

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Retrospective analysis of marine growth and relationships to return rates of Penobscot River Atlantic salmon

Barajas

Sheehan

Haas-Castro

et al. 2022

Can. J. Fish. Aquat. Sci.

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Beginning in the 1980s, return rates of Atlantic salmon to the Penobscot River, Maine U.S.A. declined and have persisted at low levels. This downturn coincided with similar declines in North American and European Atlantic salmon stocks and with changes in the Northwest Atlantic ecosystem. Previous studies investigated whether early marine growth explained the declines, but results varied, with decreased growth associated with declines in European stocks but not North American stocks. In this study, we evaluate whether growth over the entire marine stage is related to Atlantic salmon marine survival. We constructed a growth time series from scales of returned Penobscot River Atlantic salmon spanning periods of varying marine survival. We used ANOVA and post-hoc tests to quantify seasonal growth increment differences and principal component analysis to characterize variability among the suite of growth increments. We observed reduced growth during the second winter and second marine year starting in the 1990s, with compensatory seasonal growth relationships. These results indicate that diminished growth during late marine stages is associated with low return rates in this population.

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Growth variation of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar at sea affects their population-specific reproductive potential

Cited by 3 publications

References 44 publications

A multi‐population approach supports common patterns in marine growth and maturation decision in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) from southern Europe

A multi‐population approach supports common patterns in marine growth and maturation decision in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) from southern Europe

Food quality andvgll3genotype influence reproductive traits in female Atlantic salmon

Retrospective analysis of marine growth and relationships to return rates of Penobscot River Atlantic salmon

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