Quantitative Links Between Pacific Salmon and Stream Periphyton

Verspoor, Jan J.; Braun, D. C.; Reynolds, John D.

doi:10.1007/s10021-010-9371-0

Cited by 39 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…Numerous studies have shown that concentrations of limiting nutrients increase following inputs of resource subsidies such as periodic inputs of seaweed to islands (e.g., Spiller et al 2010), salmon or carcass analogs to streams (Johnston et al 2004, Kohler et al 2012b or cicadas to terrestrial ecosystems (Yang 2004). Higher nutrient levels following these resource pulses sometimes translate into increased primary productivity (Johnston et al 2004, Yang 2004), but not always (Ambrose et al 2004, Verspoor et al 2010. The algal response we observed was in agreement with these latter studies, as despite higher nutrient levels, primary producer biomass was lower in the presence of analogs, and lowest in channels with both analogs and wood (C .…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 90%

Linking resource availability and habitat structure to stream organisms: an experimental and observational assessment

et al. 2014

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An experiment and a mark‐recapture field study of juvenile coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) were conducted to identify controls of key energy flow chains in river food webs. In the small‐scale experiment, we investigated the individual and interactive effects of physical habitat structure (PHS) as small wood and resource availability (tissue of adult Chinook salmon, O. tshawytscha) on nutrients, algae, invertebrates, and fish predators including juvenile coho. In the field, we quantified the effects of natural variation in prey availability (invertebrate drift biomass), PHS (wood), and local fish density on summer growth of juvenile coho across multiple stream reaches. Adding salmon tissue to experimental channels resulted in strong bottom‐up effects on select invertebrates including increased population biomass of chironomids and baetids, the numerically dominant invertebrates, and faster growth of juvenile coho. We link the enhanced growth of coho to chironomid productivity: for instance, adult chironomid flux was 4.3× higher and coho consumption of these animals 3× higher in salmon‐subsidized channels. PHS in experimental channels was associated with reduced algal biomass, potentially in response to increased invertebrate consumption, and invertebrate flux or export. The field study revealed coho growth was negatively related to PHS and total fish density and positively related to Diptera drift biomass; however, the effects of fish density and drift biomass on coho growth were relatively weak. The field study also indicated that prey resource availability and coho growth were associated with differences in canopy cover, with prey biomass and coho growth 2–4× higher in reaches receiving more sunlight. As in the experiment, coho in natural stream reaches predominantly fed on adult chironomids and other Diptera, indicating that these taxa and life‐stages are a key link between the benthic food web and mobile vertebrate predators. Our study showed that bottom‐up processes initiated by salmon subsidies and possibly light flux determined key trophic interactions in the Cedar River food web. Moreover, we speculate that PHS may modify some of these interactions indirectly through its effects on the movement of organisms through the environment.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 90%

Linking resource availability and habitat structure to stream organisms: an experimental and observational assessment

et al. 2014

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“…This model assumes equal partitioning of both C and N for all three sources, that crab diet consisted of these sources in proportion to their availability, and that the isotope ratios for these sources was consistent across all study sites (Verspoor et al 2010 15 N values of eelgrass (Zostera marina) collected from 20 estuaries within our study region (five random samples from each site over two seasons). Terrestrial POM isotope samples were attained by vacuum filtering 500 ml of stream water through pre-combusted glass fiber filters (Whatman GF/F, 47 mm, 0.7 lm).…”

Section: Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

From earth and ocean: investigating the importance of cross‐ecosystem resource linkages to a mobile estuarine consumer

Harding

Reynolds

2014

Ecosphere

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Abstract. Externally derived resources often contribute to the structuring of ecological communities.Estuaries are one of the most productive ecosystems in the world and provide an ideal system to test how communities may be shaped by resource subsidies because they occur at the intersection of marine, freshwater and terrestrial habitats. Here we tested the effects of both terrestrial-and salmon-derived subsidies, in addition to other factors such as habitat area, on the diet (inferred from stable isotopes), abundance and size of a mobile estuarine consumer, the Dungeness crab (Metacarcinus magister). Crab trap surveys encompassed 19 watersheds over two seasons in the central coast of British Columbia, Canada, which spanned natural gradients in estuary size, watershed size, riparian tree composition, and Pacific salmon spawning density. Stable isotope ratios of crab tissue confirmed the predictions that estuarine nutrient regimes can be strongly affected by upstream watershed size, salmon density, and the dominance of nitrogen-fixing red alder (Alnus rubra). There were more crabs in larger estuaries and the largest crabs were found in estuaries below the largest watersheds. The proportional contributions of terrestrial-and salmon-derived subsidies to the diet of Dungeness crabs increased with watershed size and salmon density, respectively. These results confirmed that resource subsidies can constitute large proportions of the Dungeness crab's diet, that crab abundance is determined by habitat size, but that crab size is affected by the magnitude of terrestrial resource influx.

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“…Salmon population estimates were derived from stream and bank walks each fall in cooperation with Fisheries and Oceans Canada Rosemond et al 1993, Wipfli et al 1998, Verspoor et al 2010 v www.esajournals.org (DFO), the Heiltsuk First Nation and field crews from Simon Fraser University. Hocking and Reynolds (2011) provide a detailed summary.…”

Section: Salmon Population Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…where D is the mass of salmon by unit area, B is the total mass of pink and chum in year i based on mean regional measurements, L is the spawning length ( portion of stream where salmon spawning occurs), W is the mean bankfull width based on 12 or more measurements per site and n is the number of years used to calculate D (Verspoor et al 2010. We also summed the contribution of salmon over a four-year period by negatively weighting salmon biomass from previous years as follows,…”

Section: Salmon Population Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…where D 0 is the four-year sum of salmon biomass per unit area, D as calculated in the above v www.esajournals.org equation, for a given year i, k is the rate of biomass loss and t is time in months from fall 2008 (t ¼ 2, 6, 12 and 24) (Verspoor et al 2010. We then assessed the individual contribution of each salmon index to the variation in each of our response variables using hierarchical partitioning and Akaike Information Criterion corrected for small sample sizes (AICc) (Akaike 1974, MacNally 2006.…”

Section: Salmon Population Estimatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Opposing forces: Evaluating multiple ecological roles of Pacific salmon in coastal stream ecosystems

Harding

Reynolds

2014

Ecosphere

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Abstract. Resource flows and disturbance from species migrations can alter the productivity, structure and function of an ecosystem. Annual mass migrations of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) to coastal watersheds import vast quantities of potentially limiting nutrients that have been shown to increase primary and secondary productivity in streams and lakes. Substrate disturbance during spawning can also export nutrients and reduce primary and secondary production. Here we study the impacts of these dual roles of salmon on stream invertebrates. We collected benthic macroinvertebrates in 15 streams prior to and following peak salmon spawning on British Columbia's central coast. Along with other habitat measurements including stream water chemistry, temperature, and watershed size, we investigated the effects of salmon on invertebrate d 15 N, d 13 C and biomass density (mg/m 2 ) among 15 streams and within 5 streams, upstream and downstream of barriers to spawning salmon. We found that stream invertebrates assimilate salmon-derived nutrients in proportion to availability but invertebrate biomass density declines in both seasons with increasing salmon density. Benthic disturbance appears to be the cause of this decline in the fall, but the decline in the spring may be due to the slow recovery of invertebrates from substrate disturbance the previous fall or salmon nutrients may be indirectly driving declines in spring invertebrate biomass by subsidizing other trophic levels and eliciting a trophic cascade.

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Quantitative Links Between Pacific Salmon and Stream Periphyton

Cited by 39 publications

References 54 publications

Linking resource availability and habitat structure to stream organisms: an experimental and observational assessment

Linking resource availability and habitat structure to stream organisms: an experimental and observational assessment

From earth and ocean: investigating the importance of cross‐ecosystem resource linkages to a mobile estuarine consumer

Opposing forces: Evaluating multiple ecological roles of Pacific salmon in coastal stream ecosystems

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