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ARTICLE

The Influences of Body Size, Habitat Quality, and Competition on the Movement and Survival of Juvenile Coho Salmon during the Early Stages of Stream Recolonization

, , , , &
Pages 883-897 | Received 09 Jul 2010, Accepted 26 Jan 2011, Published online: 30 Jun 2011
 

Abstract

Understanding the factors influencing the success of juvenile Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. in newly colonized habitats is essential to their recovery in large areas across the West Coast of the United States and Canada. We studied biotic and abiotic factors associated with survival during the early stages of colonization and population establishment of juvenile coho salmon O. kisutch in Rock Creek, a tributary of the upper Cedar River in the Lake Washington basin of Puget Sound, Washington. The stream was occupied by resident fishes (e.g., rainbow trout O. mykiss, cutthroat trout O. clarkii, speckled dace Rhinichthys osculus, and several sculpins Cottus spp.), but adult coho salmon and other anadromous fishes had been excluded by a dam from 1901 until fish ladder installation in 2003. We defined logistic regression models and used an information-theoretic approach to predict apparent survival with various combinations of individual fish condition, location competition, and local habitat quality. The best-approximating models included measures of brood year, body size, habitat, and migration timing. Survival was positively associated with body size and habitat quality and negatively associated with competition. Survival from late summer to smolt migration varied among years (mean ± SD = 27 ± 11%) and was significantly higher within Rock Creek (73 ± 11%) than during seaward migration in the Cedar River and Lake Washington (38 ± 14%). Juvenile coho salmon established a population and outnumbered resident salmonid species by 40% in the lower 2 km of Rock Creek within 5 years of colonization. Overall, the results revealed the linkage between the colonization success of juvenile coho salmon and the biotic features and habitat quality in a newly accessible environment during the stream-rearing phase of their life history.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This work was funded by Seattle Public Utilities, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Northwest Fisheries Science Center, and in part by a grant from Washington Sea Grant, University of Washington, pursuant to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Award Numbers NA04OAR4170032 and NA07OAR4170007, Project Numbers R/F-148 and R/F-159. We sincerely thank the many individuals who helped collect data, develop and maintain the PIT tag readers, and allowed our project to move forward over time. This includes Gabriel Brooks, Thomas Buehrens, Ryan Klett, Kris Kloehn, Ranae Holland, Karrie Hanson, Phil Roni, Neala Kendall, Paul Devries, David Chapin, Dwayne Paige, Heidy Barnett, Paul Faulds, John McDowell, Karl Burton, Orlay Johnson, Jeremy Cram, Earl Prentice, Sandy Downing, and Bruce Jonasson. We thank Clint Muhlfeld, and two anonymous reviewers for constructive and helpful comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript.

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