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Research article - Peer-reviewed, 2021

Growth variation of Atlantic salmon Salmo salar at sea affects their population-specific reproductive potential

Jacobson, Philip; Whitlock, Rebecca; Huss, Magnus; Leonardsson, Kjell; Ostergren, Johan; Gardmark, Anna

Abstract

Understanding the processes shaping the dynamics of anadromous fish populations is essential for their management and conservation. Yet, little is known about how variation in performance at sea affects their population dynamics. Here we show that variation in body growth at sea contributes to explaining variation in the reproductive potential for 2 Atlantic salmon Salmo salar populations, but to a varying extent. To this end, we assembled data collected during 50 yr for 2 Baltic salmon populations of hatchery origin, including annually released smolts, survival at sea estimates, size-specific growth at sea, annual length distributions of returning adult females and their reproductive potential. The regression models fitted to explain the reproductive potential of our 2 study populations improved when growth at sea was included as an explanatory variable, in addition to smolt year class abundance and estimates of their survival at sea. This link between body growth at sea and population-level reproductive potential suggests that growth at sea can be important to consider when resolving variation in recovery and dynamics among salmon populations sharing the same sea.

Keywords

Anadromy; Fecundity; Population dynamics; Salmon; Size-specific body growth

Published in

Marine Ecology Progress Series
2021, volume: 671, pages: 165-174
Publisher: INTER-RESEARCH

Authors' information

Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Aquatic Resources
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Aquatic Resources
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Aquatic Resources
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Wildlife, Fish and Environmental Studies
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Aquatic Resources
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Aquatic Resources

UKÄ Subject classification

Fish and Aquacultural Science

Publication Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13734

URI (permanent link to this page)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/113635