Biofilm nutrient limitation, metabolism, and standing crop responses to experimental application of salmon carcass analog in Idaho streams

Ebel, Jonathan D.; Marcarelli, Amy; Kohler, Andre E.

doi:10.1139/cjfas-2014-0266

Cited by 11 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…Anadromous salmon and steelhead use olfactory cues to return to their natal streams to spawn (Quinn, 2005), and Cu can disrupt chemoreception at sublethal concentrations Meyer and Adams, 2010). Declines of returning adult Pacific salmon also led to decreased delivery of marine-derived nutrients to streams, and locations with no or few salmon carcasses may in turn have lower productivity than streams with more abundant carcasses (Ebel et al, 2014). Thus if anadromous fish migration were impeded by water quality conditions, upstream sites would make unsuitable reference sites.…”

Section: Sampling Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because expeditionary wilderness sampling was infeasible for an annual monitoring strategy, we assumed that with water quality improvements, anadromous fish would not be impeded from reaching upper Panther Creek. While this assumption was met (Figure 10), regional salmon populations remain influenced by dams and other factors that likely limit adult returns and subsequent marine-derived nutrient delivery (Ebel et al, 2014).…”

Section: Sampling Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Recovery of a mining-damaged stream ecosystem

Mebane

Eakins

Fraser

et al. 2015

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

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This paper presents a 30+ year record of changes in benthic macroinvertebrate communities and fish populations associated with improving water quality in mining-influenced streams. Panther Creek, a tributary to the Salmon River in central Idaho, USA suffered intensive damage from mining and milling operations at the Blackbird Mine that released copper (Cu), arsenic (As), and cobalt (Co) into tributaries. From the 1960s through the 1980s, no fish and few aquatic invertebrates could be found in 40 km of mine-affected reaches of Panther Creek downstream of the metals contaminated tributaries, Blackbird and Big Deer Creeks.Efforts to restore water quality began in 1995, and by 2002 Cu levels had been reduced by about 90%, with incremental declines since. Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were early colonizers, quickly expanding their range as areas became habitable when Cu concentrations dropped below about 3X the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's biotic ligand model (BLM) based chronic aquatic life criterion. Anadromous Chinook Salmon (O. tshawytscha) and steelhead (O. mykiss) have also reoccupied Panther Creek. Full recovery of salmonid populations occurred within about 12-years after the onset of restoration efforts and about 4-years after the Cu chronic criteria had mostly been met, with recovery interpreted as similarity in densities, biomass, year class strength, and condition factors between reference sites and mining-influenced sites. Shorthead Sculpin (Cottus confusus) were slower than salmonids to disperse and colonize. While benthic macroinvertebrate biomass has increased, species richness has plateaued at about 70 to 90% of reference despite the Cu criterion having been met for several years. Different invertebrate taxa had distinctly different recovery trajectories. Among the slowest taxa to recover were Ephemerella, Cinygmula and Rhithrogena mayflies, Enchytraeidae oligochaetes, and Heterlimnius aquatic beetles. Potential reasons for the failure of some invertebrate taxa to recover include competition, and high sensitivity to Co and Cu.

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Section: Sampling Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Sampling Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recovery of a mining-damaged stream ecosystem

Mebane

Eakins

Fraser

et al. 2015

Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene

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“…In response, salmon restoration programmes annually supplement spawning grounds with carcasses and carcass analogues in the Pacific Northwest to stimulate primary and invertebrate productivity in salmon streams (Kohler, Rugenski, & Taki, ; Kohler et al., , ). Yet the success of these mitigation measures and the pathways in which these nutrients move through food webs is not fully understood (Collins, Marcarelli, Baxter, & Wipfli, ; Ebel, Marcarelli, & Kohler, ). Although salmon have received much attention, other anadromous fish, including nonnatives, could also play significant roles in nutrient transport.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

From salmon to shad: Shifting sources of marine‐derived nutrients in the Columbia River Basin

Haskell

2017

Ecology of Freshwater Fish

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Like Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), nonnative American shad (Alosa sapidissima) have the potential to convey large quantities of nutrients between the Pacific Ocean and freshwater spawning areas in the Columbia River Basin (CRB). American shad are now the most numerous anadromous fish in the CRB, yet the magnitude of the resulting nutrient flux owing to the shift from salmon to shad is unknown. Nutrient flux models revealed that American shad conveyed over 15,000 kg of nitrogen (N) and 3,000 kg of phosphorus (P) annually to John Day Reservoir, the largest mainstem reservoir in the lower Columbia River. Shad were net importers of N, with juveniles and postspawners exporting just 31% of the N imported by adults. Shad were usually net importers of P, with juveniles and postspawners exporting 46% of the P imported by adults on average. American shad contributed <0.2% of the total annual P load into John Day Reservoir, but during June when most adult shad are migrating into John Day Reservoir, they contributed as much as 2.0% of the P load. Nutrient inputs by American shad were similar to current but far less than historical inputs of Pacific salmon owing to their smaller size. Given the relatively high background P levels and low retention times in lower Columbia River reservoirs, it is unlikely that shad marinederived nutrients affect nutrient balances or food web productivity through autotrophic pathways. However, a better understanding of shad spawning aggregations in the CRB is needed. K E Y W O R D Saquatic food webs, lake and reservoir management, nonnative species, nutrients, salmon, shad | INTRODUCTIONAnadromous fish are vectors of nutrient transport between marine and freshwater food webs. This phenomenon has been well documented for Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.; Holtgrieve & Schindler, 2011;Rex & Petticrew, 2008;Scheuerell, Levin, Zabel, Williams, & Sanderson, 2005;Vanni, 2002;Wipfli, Hudson, & Caouette, 1998), but is less explored for other anadromous fish. Pacific salmon are large-bodied nutrient vectors that contribute 3.0% of their body mass as nitrogen (N) and 0.36% of their body mass as phosphorus (P) in the form of excretions, gametes and carcasses to freshwater areas where they spawn (Brock, Leavitt, Schindler, & Quay, 2007). These nutrients can benefit progeny by increasing the productivity of rearing grounds but can also influence the productivity of entire ecosystems at multiple trophic levels. The decline of once great salmon runs in the Columbia River Basin (CRB) has reduced salmon-derived nutrient inputs to spawning grounds. Columbia River Basin salmon once numbered from 11 to 16 million per year and imported millions of kg of N and hundreds of thousands of kg of P annually (Gresh, Lichatowich, & Schoonmaker, 2000). These nutrient inputs have decreased by 90% with an associated decline in the productivity of salmon spawning grounds. This loss in productivity could inhibit ongoing salmon restoration efforts. In response, salmon restoration programmes annually supplement sp...

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“…, Ebel et al. ) that may subsequently translate into increased aquatic invertebrate growth rates (Chaloner and Wipfli , Minakawa et al. ) and elevated levels of invertebrate biomass or density that may persist through the weeks and months following spawning and carcass deposition (Wipfli et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of experimentally added salmon subsidies on resident fishes via direct and indirect pathways

et al. 2016

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Abstract. Artificial additions of nutrients of differing forms such as salmon carcasses and analog pellets (i.e. pasteurized fishmeal) have been proposed as a means of stimulating aquatic productivity and enhancing populations of anadromous and resident fishes. Nutrient mitigation to enhance fish production in stream ecosystems assumes that the central pathway by which effects occur is bottomup, through aquatic primary and secondary production, with little consideration of reciprocal aquaticterrestrial pathways. The net outcome (i.e. bottom-up vs. top-down) of adding salmon-derived materials to streams depend on whether or not these subsidies indirectly intensify predation on in situ prey via increases in a shared predator or alleviate such predation pressure. We conducted a 3-year experiment across nine tributaries of the N. Fork Boise River, Idaho, USA, consisting of 500-m stream reaches treated with salmon carcasses (n = 3), salmon carcass analog (n = 3), and untreated control reaches (n = 3). We observed 2-8 fold increases in streambed biofilms in the 2-6 weeks following additions of both salmon subsidy treatments in years 1 and 2 and a 1.5-fold increase in standing crop biomass of aquatic invertebrates to carcass additions in the second year of our experiment. The consumption of benthic invertebrates by stream fishes increased 110-140% and 44-66% in carcass and analog streams in the same time frame, which may have masked invertebrate standing crop responses in years 3 and 4. Resident trout directly consumed 10.0-24.0 g·m −2 ·yr −1 of salmon carcass and <1-11.0 g·m −2 ·yr −1 of analog material, which resulted in 1.2-2.9 g·m −2 ·yr −1 and 0.03-1.4 g·m −2 ·yr −1 of tissue produced. In addition, a feedback flux of terrestrial maggots to streams contributed 0.0-2.0 g·m −2 ·yr −1 to trout production. Overall, treatments increased annual trout production by 2-3 fold, though density and biomass were unaffected. Our results indicate the strength of bottom-up and top-down responses to subsidy additions was asymmetrical, with top-down forces masking bottom-up effects that required multiple years to manifest. The findings also highlight the need for nutrient mitigation programs to consider multiple pathways of energy and nutrient flow to account for the complex effects of salmon subsidies in stream-riparian ecosystems.

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Biofilm nutrient limitation, metabolism, and standing crop responses to experimental application of salmon carcass analog in Idaho streams

Cited by 11 publications

References 59 publications

Recovery of a mining-damaged stream ecosystem

Recovery of a mining-damaged stream ecosystem

From salmon to shad: Shifting sources of marine‐derived nutrients in the Columbia River Basin

Effects of experimentally added salmon subsidies on resident fishes via direct and indirect pathways

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