Riding the crimson tide: mobile terrestrial consumers track phenological variation in spawning of an anadromous fish.

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Riding the crimson tide: mobile terrestrial consumers track phenological variation in spawning of an anadromous fish.

Biol Lett. 2013;9(3):20130048

Authors: Schindler DE, Armstrong JB, Bentley KT, Jankowski K, Lisi PJ, Payne LX

Abstract
When resources are spatially and temporally variable, consumers can increase their foraging success by moving to track ephemeral feeding opportunities as these shift across the landscape; the best examples derive from herbivore-plant systems, where grazers migrate to capitalize on the seasonal waves of vegetation growth. We evaluated whether analogous processes occur in watersheds supporting spawning sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), asking whether seasonal activities of predators and scavengers shift spatial distributions to capitalize on asynchronous spawning among populations of salmon. Both glaucous-winged gulls and coastal brown bears showed distinct shifts in their spatial distributions over the course of the summer, reflecting the shifting distribution of spawning sockeye salmon, which was associated with variation in water temperature among spawning sites. By tracking the spatial and temporal variation in the phenology of their principal prey, consumers substantially extended their foraging opportunity on a superabundant, yet locally ephemeral, resource. Ecosystem-based fishery management efforts that seek to balance trade-offs between fisheries and ecosystem processes supported by salmon should, therefore, assess the importance of life-history variation, particularly in phenological traits, for maintaining important ecosystem functions, such as providing marine-derived resources for terrestrial predators and scavengers.

PMID: 23554279 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]

via pubmed: school of aquatic an… http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23554279?dopt=Abstract

Riding the crimson tide: mobile terrestrial consumers track phenological variation in spawning of an anadromous fish.

Written by

Riding the crimson tide: mobile terrestrial consumers track phenological variation in spawning of an anadromous fish.

Biol Lett. 2013;9(3):20130048

Authors: Schindler DE, Armstrong JB, Bentley KT, Jankowski K, Lisi PJ, Payne LX

Abstract
When resources are spatially and temporally variable, consumers can increase their foraging success by moving to track ephemeral feeding opportunities as these shift across the landscape; the best examples derive from herbivore-plant systems, where grazers migrate to capitalize on the seasonal waves of vegetation growth. We evaluated whether analogous processes occur in watersheds supporting spawning sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka), asking whether seasonal activities of predators and scavengers shift spatial distributions to capitalize on asynchronous spawning among populations of salmon. Both glaucous-winged gulls and coastal brown bears showed distinct shifts in their spatial distributions over the course of the summer, reflecting the shifting distribution of spawning sockeye salmon, which was associated with variation in water temperature among spawning sites. By tracking the spatial and temporal variation in the phenology of their principal prey, consumers substantially extended their foraging opportunity on a superabundant, yet locally ephemeral, resource. Ecosystem-based fishery management efforts that seek to balance trade-offs between fisheries and ecosystem processes supported by salmon should, therefore, assess the importance of life-history variation, particularly in phenological traits, for maintaining important ecosystem functions, such as providing marine-derived resources for terrestrial predators and scavengers.

PMID: 23554279 [PubMed – in process]

via pubmed: school of aquatic an… http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23554279?dopt=Abstract

Centennial-scale fluctuations and regional complexity characterize Pacific salmon population dynamics over the past five centuries.

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Centennial-scale fluctuations and regional complexity characterize Pacific salmon population dynamics over the past five centuries.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Jan 15;

Authors: Rogers LA, Schindler DE, Lisi PJ, Holtgrieve GW, Leavitt PR, Bunting L, Finney BP, Selbie DT, Chen G, Gregory-Eaves I, Lisac MJ, Walsh PB

Abstract
Observational data from the past century have highlighted the importance of interdecadal modes of variability in fish population dynamics, but how these patterns of variation fit into a broader temporal and spatial context remains largely unknown. We analyzed time series of stable nitrogen isotopes from the sediments of 20 sockeye salmon nursery lakes across western Alaska to characterize temporal and spatial patterns in salmon abundance over the past ∼500 y. Although some stocks varied on interdecadal time scales (30- to 80-y cycles), centennial-scale variation, undetectable in modern-day catch records and survey data, has dominated salmon population dynamics over the past 500 y. Before 1900, variation in abundance was clearly not synchronous among stocks, and the only temporal signal common to lake sediment records from this region was the onset of commercial fishing in the late 1800s. Thus, historical changes in climate did not synchronize stock dynamics over centennial time scales, emphasizing that ecosystem complexity can produce a diversity of ecological responses to regional climate forcing. Our results show that marine fish populations may alternate between naturally driven periods of high and low abundance over time scales of decades to centuries and suggest that management models that assume time-invariant productivity or carrying capacity parameters may be poor representations of the biological reality in these systems.

PMID: 23322737 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]

via pubmed: school of aquatic an… http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/23322737?dopt=Abstract