Search

Riverine habitat fragmentation by barriers, including impoundments, is common and their effects on obligate aquatic organisms are manifold. Organisms, such as Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), that make extensive river migrations are particularly vulnerable to the effects of impoundments. In this study, we use acoustic telemetry to examine the migratory behaviour of Atlantic salmon, as they migrate to sea for the first time as juvenile 'smolts', in a river with a series of dams that form a complex hydropower scheme. We demonstrate that overall migration success in the River Dee catchment and particularly through standing waters was remarkably high. We speculate that high migration success in standing waters could be due to relative current speeds providing good quality directional cues to migrants. Migration success past the two dams in this study, was relatively high, although the number of unsuccessful passage attempts before a successful passage was also very high. The vast majority of smolts passed the dams when the turbines were operational. At one dam, smolts did not use an available fish pass but migrated through the generating turbines. These findings provide several routes through which generation could be managed to enhance the success of downstream smolt migration in rivers where there are similar patterns of hydrogeneration in place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Migratory species typically undertake demanding long‐distance journeys, across different habitat types during which they are exposed to multiple natural and anthropogenic stressors. Mortality during migration is typically high and may be human induced. Understanding individual responses to these selection pressures is rarely attempted because of the challenges of relating individual phenotypic and genetic data to migration success. Here, we show distinct single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sets significantly differentiated between Atlantic salmon smolts making successful migrations to sea and those that failed to migrate, in two different rivers. In contrast, morphological variation was not diagnostic of migration success. Populations from each river were genetically distinct, and while different genes were possibly implicated in migration success in each river, they related to common biological processes (e.g., osmoregulation and immune and stress response). Given that migration failure should quickly purge polymorphism at selected SNPs from a population, the question of how genetic diversity in these populations is maintained is an important one. Standing genetic variation could be maintained by different life history strategies and/or environmentally driven balancing selection. Our work highlights the importance of preserving genetic diversity to ensure evolutionary resilience at the population level and has practical implications for management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Tracking of animal migrations using telemetry technologies needs to take into consideration the burden that the tag exerts on the animal. Here, we examined the potential impacts of acoustic tags of two sizes (nominally a 'V6' [smaller] and 'V7' [larger]) on the downstream riverine migration success and behaviour of wild Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) smolts. One hundred fish were tagged with either a V6 or V7 tag. Tag burden (tag: fish weight) ranged from 1.88% to 7.39% and differed significantly between fish tagged with the V6 (mean [SD] = 3.63% [0.51%]) and the V7 tags (mean [SD] = 5.84% [0.95%]). There was no significant difference in the in‐river migration failure between the two groups when tested with a time‐to‐event analysis. There were also no differences in other elements of the migratory behaviour (rate of movement, time of detection and residency time) between the two tagging groups. These data support the use of acoustic tracking for monitoring smolt migration and highlight that tagging of smaller smolts at up to 7.39% tag burden to gain a more representative understanding of migration success and behaviours across a smolt population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Conflicts can arise in developmental pathways that prevent an individual entering different developmental life stages that result in the expression of different phenotypes within a specific time period. In salmonids, theory suggests that sexual maturation may inhibit subsequent smolting within the same 12‐month period and that this is partly the result of the time and the apparently conflicting physiological changes for these processes to occur, and partly because of the energy requirements for these physiologically taxing processes. This study tested whether sexually mature male Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) parr, caught in the autumn, would subsequently smolt the following spring. Through individual identification using PIT telemetry, minimum estimates of 3.0% (n = 6/203) and 5.9% (n = 1/17) of Atlantic salmon parr that were sexually mature in two river catchments during the autumn were subsequently identified as smolts in the following spring. We therefore suggest that, in line with previous studies on domesticated Atlantic salmon and laboratory‐based experiments, there is no developmental conflict but that life‐history expression is mediated by environmental and genetic processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Geometric morphometrics is widely used to quantify morphological variation between biological specimens, but the fundamental influence of operator bias on data reproducibility is rarely considered, particularly in studies using photographs of live animals taken under field conditions. We examined this using four independent operators that applied an identical landmarking scheme to replicate photographs of 291 live Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) from two rivers. Using repeated measures tests, we found significant inter-operator differences in mean body shape, suggesting that the operators introduced a systematic error despite following the same landmarking scheme. No significant differences were detected when the landmarking process was repeated by the same operator on a random subset of photographs. Importantly, in spite of significant operator bias, small but statistically significant morphological differences between fish from the two rivers were found consistently by all operators. Pairwise tests of angles of vectors of shape change showed that these between-river differences in body shape were analogous across operator datasets, suggesting a general reproducibility of findings obtained by geometric morphometric studies. In contrast, merging landmark data when fish from each river are digitised by different operators had a significant impact on downstream analyses, highlighting an intrinsic risk of bias. Overall, we show that, even when significant inter-operator error is introduced during digitisation, following an identical landmarking scheme can identify morphological differences between populations. This study indicates that operators digitising at least a sub-set of all data groups of interest may be an effective way of mitigating inter-operator error and potentially enabling data sharing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Variations in behavioral traits are widely recognized to drive animal behaviors exhibited within a population. However, information on how behavior traits influence behavior in anthropogenically modified habitats is lacking. Many habitats have become highly fragmented as a result of human processes. To mitigate this and improve habitat connectivity, wildlife passes are increasingly employed, with the aim of enabling animals to move freely between habitats. However, wildlife passes (e.g., fishways) are not always effective in achieving passage and it remains uncertain what factors play a role in an individual's likelihood of passing successfully. This study measured three behavioral traits (boldness, exploration, and activity) in juvenile brown trout (Salmo trutta; n = 78) under field conditions within a river and tested whether these behavior traits influenced both the passage success and the behaviors exhibited during upstream fishway passage attempts. Although behavioral traits were found and collapsed into two behavioral trait dimensions, behavioral traits had low repeatability and so did not contribute to a personality spectrum. Boldness was found to negatively influence the number of passage attempts carried out by an individual and to positively influence passage success, with bolder individuals carrying out fewer attempts and having an increased probability of passage success. No behavioral traits were found to be related to other passage metrics (passage success, Time until First Attempt, and Passage Duration) during the first passage. But all three behavioral traits were significantly negatively related to the changes in passage behaviors at consecutive, successful passage attempts, with bolder, more exploratory and more active individuals passing through a fishway quicker on the second passage than on the first. This study suggests that bolder and more active individuals may perform better during fishway passage attempts, particularly within rivers where multiple barriers to movement exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Many rivers are heavily fragmented, resulting from anthropogenic cross‐channel structures. Cost‐effective solutions are needed to restore habitat connectivity for migratory fishes, including those of conservation concern, such as the European river lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis). Studded material is becoming increasingly used as a low‐cost retrofit solution for lamprey passage at sloping weirs, although little is known about the efficacy of the material or what stud arrangements may be most effective. This study tested whether expanding a single‐density studded tile (SDT) lane from 1 to 2‐m width increased passage success (nreleased = 133), and also compared the passage performance between a SDT lane and a dual‐density studded tile (DDT) lane (nreleased = 115) at a sloping weir, using PIT telemetry. No passage was recorded (nattempted = 89) at the 2‐m wide SDT lane, but 61.6% (npassed/attempted = 53/86) passed using DDT/SDT lane combination. However, increased passage efficiency was likely a result of high river flow (Q2.0‐Q30.6) during DDT/SDT comparison versus low (Q8.3‐Q88.5) while the 2‐m wide SDT lane was employed. There was no evidence that passage occurred using solely one stud configuration. It is, therefore, hypothesised that passage of river lamprey at weirs is more dependent on flow regime than the provision of either stud configuration. However, with 46.1% (npassed/released = 53/115) of those released during DDT/SDT comparison passing on the instrumented section (10.5% of weir face), the provision of studded tiles may aid in lamprey passage at high flows, presumably as the tiles generate a low‐velocity boundary layer that can be utilised as lamprey swim above the studs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

Abstract: Long‐distance migration of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is known to result in high levels of mortality. For a species experiencing global population decline, it is thus vital to better understand migration behaviour, both in the river and marine stages. Atlantic salmon smolts (n = 50) were tracked using acoustic telemetry in the River Deveron, Scotland, and adjacent coastal area. Higher rates of mortality were observed in the river (0.77% per km) than the early marine stage of migration (0.0% per km). Mortality likely resulted from predation. Higher swim speeds were recorded in the early marine stage compared with the river (marine = 7.37 ± 28.20 km/day; river = 5.03 ± 1.73 km/day [mean ± SD]), a potential predator avoidance behaviour. The majority of smolts leaving the river did so in darkness and on a flooding tide. Overall river and marine migration success were linked to nights of lower lunar brightness. Marine migration speed decreased with increasing environmental noise levels, a finding with implications for fisheries management. The migration pathway in the early marine environment did not follow obvious geographical features, such as the coastline. Thus, we suggest that early marine environment pathways are more influenced by complex water currents. These findings highlight factors that influence smolt migration survival and behaviour, areas on which future research should focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...

There is some evidence that the river migration success of Atlantic salmon smolts, on their first migration to sea, varies both spatially and temporally. However, we have only a poor understanding of what may be driving this variation. In this study, we used acoustic telemetry to quantify the spatial and temporal variations in river migration success in Atlantic salmon smolts on their first migration to sea. In total 4120 Atlantic salmon smolts migrating through 22 rivers in Scotland, England, Ireland, and Northern Ireland over multiple years were included in the study. Individuals were defined as successful migrants if detected leaving the river to enter marine waters. The results show significant temporal (up to 4 years) and spatial (river) variations in migration success, with overall between‐river migration success varying from 3.4% to 97.0% and between years from 3.4% and 61.0%. Temporal variation in migration success was river specific, with some rivers being more temporally stable (exhibiting little variation between years) than others. Across all rivers and years, individual migration success was predicted positively by body condition and negatively by tag burden. The rate of migration success for a population (migration success standardized to a common river distance [proportion km−1]) was predicted by a number of environmental factors. The proportion of river catchment that comprised wetland and woodland positively predicted migration success, whereas the proportion of grassland and peatland in a catchment negatively predicted the rate of migration success. Although the mechanisms through which these effects may be operating were not directly examined in this study, we discuss some potential routes through which they may occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] more...