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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Stuttgart, Arkansas » Harry K. Dupree Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Cntr » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #228238

Title: Stock Identification is Essential for Determining the Causes of Salmon Fluctuations

Author
item GARVIN, MICHAEL - UNIV. OF ALASKA
item Fuller, Adam
item RILEY, RACHEL - UNIV. OF ALASKA
item HALL, SHARON - UNIV. OF ALASKA
item WILMOT, RICHARD - NOAA
item GHARRETT, ANTHONY - UNIV. OF ALASKA

Submitted to: Symposium on Sustainability of the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim Salmon Fisheries
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/29/2006
Publication Date: 2/6/2007
Citation: Garvin, M., Fuller, S.A., Riley, R., Hall, S., Wilmot, R., Gharrett, A.J. 2007. Stock identification is essential for determining the causes of salmon fluctuations. Symposium on Sustainability of the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim Salmon Fisheries. p.86.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Western Alaska salmon stocks have declined in recent years and, although in some areas abundances have rebounded, in others they have not. The decline has been attributed to a variety of causes, but the most frequently cited reasons are bycatch (e.g., the pelagic trawl fisheries) and ecological changes (either interannual climate fluctuations or global changes). Determining the causes of the fluctuations or declines in abundance requires answers to questions about spatial, temporal, and interannual marine distributions of salmon stocks. DNA sequence-based markers provide a variety of tools that tap that variability. We are evaluating and developing preliminary baseline information for two kinds of markers – microsatellites and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The two types of markers tap different kinds of variation in the DNA. Spawning populations were sampled throughout the range. Principal components analysis, conducted to examine similarities between populations, showed a strong spatial signal. Simulations conducted to evaluate the resolution between regional aggregations of populations indicated that fish from many regions can be clearly distinguished. We also estimated contributions to a mixed stock sample collected in August 2005 along the northern Aleutian Islands.