Use of Morphological and Physiological Indices to Characterize Life History Diversity in Juvenile Hatchery Winter-Run Steelhead

Abstract

Steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss exhibit significant life history plasticity, including variation in freshwater residence time, age of smoltification, and maturation that are influenced by exceeding specific thresholds in size or body energy stores. Fish that do not reach minimum thresholds for smoltification or exceed thresholds for maturation may “residualize” in freshwater. Understanding life history diversity is important in steelhead hatchery programs. The objective of this investigation was to characterize life history diversity in Hood River, Oregon, hatchery winter-run steelhead prior to release. We used both morphological and physiological indices to assess degree of smoltification in both sexes and maturation in males. Smoltification was categorized by measuring size, visual smolt index, and gill Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase activity. All females were determined to be immature. Male reproductive development required histological staging of testes. Other indices of maturation—including gonadosomatic index, plasma 11-ketotestosterone, and pituitary fshb and lhb and testis ifg3 and amh gene expression—were also employed, with varying degrees of success. Five phenotypes were described: (1) immature male and female parr; (2) precociously mature male parr; (3) male smolts in early to mid-spermatogenesis that are likely to spawn after <1 year in the ocean; (4) males that might have attempted maturation, but failed; and (5) immature male and female smolts that could mature after >1 year in the ocean. Over three brood years, we estimated that 3–4% of the population could potentially residualize due to failure to smolt or precocious male maturation, 1–12% could mature after <1 year in the ocean (one salt male), and 84–95% could mature after >1 year in the ocean (two to three salt males and females). Based on previous studies conducted in the Hood River basin, the residualism rate estimated for this hatchery population is lower than that of naturally rearing Hood River steelhead.

Received November 2, 2016; accepted February 14, 2017 Published online May 11, 2017

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Jim Gidley, Albert Santos, and Chuck Gehling for providing access to fish and facilities (Parkdale Hatchery). Assistance in sample collection was provided by Louisa Harding (School of Aquatic and Fisheries Science, University of Washington) and Megan Saunders (Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation). We are very grateful to three anonymous reviewers and the associate editor for their thoughtful reviews and suggestions for significantly improving this manuscript. This research was conducted in accordance with University of Washington Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee protocol number 2313-90. Funding was provided by the Bonneville Power Administration to D.A.L. and C.V.B., with contract support by Richard Golden under Project 1988-053-03. M.A.M and J.T.D. were under contract to the National Marine Fisheries Service, Northwest Fisheries Science Center for this work. References to trade names does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.