Abstract:Oncorhynchus mykiss form partially migratory populations with anadromous fish that undergo marine migrations and residents that complete their life cycle in fresh water. Many populations' anadromous components are threatened or endangered, prompting interest in understanding ecological and evolutionary processes underlying anadromy and residency. In this paper, we synthesize information to better understand genetic and environmental influences on O. mykiss life histories, identify critical knowledge gaps, and suggest next steps. Anadromy and residency appear to reflect interactions among genetics, individual condition, and environmental influences. First, an increasing body of literature suggests that anadromous and resident individuals differ in the expression of genes related to growth, smoltification, and metabolism. Second, the literature supports the conditional strategy theory, where individuals adopt a life history pattern based on their conditional status relative to genetic thresholds along with ultimate effects of size and age at maturation and iteroparity. However, except for a generally positive association between residency and high lipid content plus a large attainable size in fresh water, the effects of body size and growth are inconsistent. Thus, individuals can exhibit plasticity in variable environments. Finally, patterns in anadromy and residency among and within populations suggested a wide range of possible environmental influences at different life stages, from freshwater temperature to marine survival. Although we document a number of interesting correlations, direct tests of mechanisms are scarce and little data exist on the extent of residency and anadromy. Consequently, we identified as many data gaps as conclusions, leaving ample room for future research.Résumé : Les truites arc-en-ciel (Oncorhynchus mykiss) forment des populations partiellement migratrices incluant des individus anadromes qui effectuent des migrations marines et des individus résidents dont le cycle biologique se déroule entièrement en eau douce. Les éléments anadromes de nombreuses populations sont menacés ou en voie de disparition, ce qui suscite un intérêt envers la compréhension des processus écologiques et évolutionnaires qui sous-tendent l'anadromie et la résidence. Nous présentons une synthèse de l'information disponible dans le but de mieux comprendre les influences génétiques et environnementales sur les cycles biologiques d'O. mykiss, de cerner les lacunes critiques en matière de connaissances et de proposer des avenues de recherche future. L'anadromie et la résidence semblent témoigner d'interactions entre la génétique, l'état des individus et des influences environnementales. D'abord, de plus en plus d'études donnent à penser que les individus anadromes et résidents diffèrent sur le plan de l'expression des gènes associés à la croissance, à la smoltification et au métabolisme. Deuxièmement, la documentation appuie la théorie de la stratégie conditionnelle selon laquelle les individus adoptent un m...

The relationships among behavior, environment, and migration success in anadromous fishes are poorly understood. We monitored migration behavior at eight Columbia and Snake river dams for 18 286 adult Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and steelhead (sea-run Oncorhynchus mykiss) over 7 years using radiotelemetry. When statistically controlling for variation in flow, temperature, fisheries take, and other environmental variables, we observed that unsuccessful individuals — those not observed to reach spawning areas — had longer passage times at nearly all dams than fish that eventually reached tributaries. In many cases, times were also longer for unsuccessful adults passing through a multiple-dam reach. Four ecological mechanisms may have contributed to these patterns: (i) environmental factors not accounted for in the analyses; (ii) inefficient responses by some fish to passage conditions at dams that resulted in slowed passage, energetic depletion, and unsuccessful migration; (iii) ongoing selection for traits needed to pass obstructions; and (or) (iv) passage rate was not directly linked to migration success, but rather, both resulted from relatively poor phenotypic condition upon river entry in unsuccessful migrants. Overall, these results illustrate the need for a mechanistic understanding of the factors that influence migration success and the need for fitness-based criteria to assess the effects of dams on anadromous fishes.

Abstract. Understanding relationships between the size of individuals and their subsequent survival can not only provide insights into mechanisms of mortality, but can also identify traits to measure for monitoring at-risk populations. We analyzed a data set of more than 54 000 juvenile chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) from 15 populations over five years. The juveniles were tagged during the summer in their freshwater rearing habitats and then recaptured at downstream sites the following spring after an extended rearing and overwintering period. We measured the length and weight of fish at tagging and computed a ''condition index'' that determined how fat or thin a fish was relative to others. Among populations, mean length and mean condition index were poor predictors of survival, but we did detect year and site effects. Within populations, survival was strongly related to the relative length of individuals but not to relative condition index. Our results are consistent with length-related mechanisms of mortality mediated by hierarchical behavior, and thus merely measuring changes in mean values of morphological traits in populations of juveniles may provide little insight into expected changes in population viability. Expanding upon these results, we predicted a nearly 60% increase in selection for juvenile fish length when we extended our observation period through adulthood. Thus, monitoring populations through only a portion of their life history may present an incomplete picture of their survival variability.

Hatchery programmes for supplementing depleted populations of ¢sh are undergoing a worldwide expansion and have provoked concern about their rami¢cations for populations of wild ¢sh. In particular, Paci¢c salmon are arti¢cially propagated in enormous numbers in order to compensate for numerous human insults to their populations, yet the ecological impacts of this massive hatchery e¡ort are poorly understood. Here we test the hypothesis that massive numbers of hatchery-raised chinook salmon reduce the marine survival of wild Snake River spring chinook, a threatened species in the USA. Based on a unique 25-year time-series, we demonstrated a strong, negative relationship between the survival of chinook salmon and the number of hatchery ¢sh released, particularly during years of poor ocean conditions. Our results suggest that hatchery programmes that produce increasingly higher numbers of ¢sh may hinder the recovery of depleted wild populations.