Spawning-related movements in a salmonid appear timed to reduce exposure to visually oriented predators

Finlay, Ross; Poole, Russell; French, Andrew S.; Phillips, Karl P.; Kaufmann, Joshka; Doogan, A; Cotter, D.; McGinnity, Philip; Reed, Thomas E.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2020.10.004

Cited by 11 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…PIT telemetry has recently been used to investigate the behaviour and movements of sea trout in relation to condition, predator pressure and environmental conditions (e.g. Finlay et al., 2020; Haraldstad et al., 2018).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repeatability of migratory behaviour suggests trade‐off between size and survival in a wild iteroparous salmonid

2021

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Repeatable individual variation in behaviour has been demonstrated in all taxa, though few studies have explored the broader ecological consequences of such consistent behaviour. We tagged and tracked 401 individual sea trout Salmo trutta with passive integrated transponder telemetry over two to four spawning seasons as they migrated between freshwater and marine environments to spawn and feed respectively. We found the timing (time of river entry) and duration of migration (time spent in freshwater and time spent at sea) to be repeatable within individuals across years. In addition, we identified two peaks in return migration timing; a group of summer‐migrating fish and a group of fall‐migrating fish. At the time of first spawning, sea trout differed in size depending on how long the first marine phase was, but summer‐migrating fish were smaller in all subsequent spawnings. Furthermore, summer‐migrating fish had significantly better marine survival than fall‐migrating fish. Our study suggests that the timing of arrival in freshwater is an important fitness‐relevant trait, such that summer‐migrating fish have decreased fitness but remain in somewhat safer conditions, while fall‐migrating fish have increased fitness but are exposed to more risky conditions. Taken together, our findings suggest that migration timing and duration is determined via a trade‐off between size and survival, which resulted in two evolutionary stable strategies. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repeatability of migratory behaviour suggests trade‐off between size and survival in a wild iteroparous salmonid

2021

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“…Our model predicted that both sexes tended to migrate during night-time when departing from tributaries later in the season. Decreased water levels, especially in small streams, would increase the visibility of the post-spawners to predators during daytime (Finlay et al, 2020), which is a likely explanation for our observations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

Individual variation in spawning migration timing in a salmonid fish---exploring roles of environmental and social cues

福島

Rand

2022

Preprint

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1. Describing and explaining patterns of individual animal behaviors in situ, and their repeatability over the annual cycle, is an emerging field in ecology owing largely to advances in tagging technology. 2. We describe individual movements of adult Sakhalin taimen Parahucho perryi, an endangered salmonid fish, in the headwaters of a river in northern Japan during the spring spawning season over two years. 3. Migration timing, separated into stages prior to, during, and following the spawning period, was found to be more consistent and repeatable for females than males. 4. We hypothesized that the observed coordinated movement within seasons, and repeatability in migration timing across seasons, could result from 1) individual-specific responsiveness resulting from endogenous, biological traits that are mediated by environmental factors, or 2) social interactions among comigrating individuals. 5. We found that water temperature and water level experienced by fish near the river mouth approximately a week before arrival at the spawning ground explained variability in run timing between years for females but not males. 6. We found no evidence of conspecific attraction or repulsion resulting from social interactions among the spawners and post-spawners. 7. We conclude that individual-specific responsiveness to environmental cues was the likely mechanism underpinning the observed migration timing and movement patterns. 8. Determining the importance of these environmental and social factors not only during spawning but also during non-breeding life-history stages would contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of migratory connectivity in this species.

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“…Overall, the largest reproductive aggregations occurs at night in asp reproduction, which may be advantageous due to intense egg predation by bleak ( Alburnus alburnus ) [ 20 ]. Predation is often the reason why reproductive migrations occur during the night and twilight hours [ 27 , 28 ]. In our dataset, the possibility that largest reproductive aggregations occurs at night because of predation due to low light levels is also supported by the effects of lunar phase, which showed a trend of decreasing the size of reproductive aggregations during full moon), suggesting an optimization of the fish behaviour in the sense of “to see and not to be seen”.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In weak seasonal variation in photoperiod and temperature, such as the ones in tropical regions, environmental cues related to current weather conditions and tidal strength may be more relevant for the timing of the onset of migration or reproduction itself [ 23 , 27 ]. In the case of nocturnal migrations aimed at avoiding the risk of predation on migrating adults, low light levels associated with the phase of the moon may also be an important cue for migration [ 28 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Diverse environmental cues drive the size of reproductive aggregation in a rheophilic fish

et al. 2023

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Background Animal migrations are periodic and relatively predictable events, and their precise timing is essential to the reproductive success. Despite large scientific effort in monitoring animal reproductive phenology, identification of complex environmental cues that determine the timing of reproductive migrations and temporal changes in the size of reproductive aggregations in relation to environmental variables is relatively rare in the current scientific literature. Methods We tagged and tracked 1702 individuals of asp (Leuciscus aspius), a large minnow species, and monitored with a resolution of one hour the size of their reproductive aggregations (counts of sexes present at the breeding grounds standardized by the sum of individuals in the season) over seven breeding seasons using passive integrated transponder tag systems. We examined the size of reproductive aggregations in relation to environmental cues of day number within a reproductive season (intra-year seasonality), water temperature, discharge, hour in a day (intra-day pattern), temperature difference between water and air, precipitation, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and lunar phase. A generalized additive model integrating evidence from seven breeding seasons and providing typical dynamics of reproductive aggregations was constructed. Results We demonstrated that all environmental cues considered contributed to the changes in the size of reproductive aggregations during breeding season, and that some effects varied during breeding season. Our model explained approximately 50% of the variability in the data and the effects were sex-dependent (models of the same structure were fitted to each sex separately, so that we effectively stratified on sex). The size of reproductive aggregations increased unimodally in response to day in season, correlated positively with water temperature and wind speed, was highest before and after the full moon, and highest at night (interacting with day in a season). Males responded negatively and females positively to increase in atmospheric pressure. Conclusion The data demonstrate complex utilization of available environmental cues to time reproductive aggregations in freshwater fish and their interactions during the reproductive season. The study highlights the need to acquire diverse data sets consisting of many environmental cues to achieve high accuracy of interpretation of reproductive timing. Graphical abstract

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Spawning-related movements in a salmonid appear timed to reduce exposure to visually oriented predators

Cited by 11 publications

References 95 publications

Repeatability of migratory behaviour suggests trade‐off between size and survival in a wild iteroparous salmonid

Repeatability of migratory behaviour suggests trade‐off between size and survival in a wild iteroparous salmonid

Individual variation in spawning migration timing in a salmonid fish---exploring roles of environmental and social cues

Diverse environmental cues drive the size of reproductive aggregation in a rheophilic fish

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