Global assessment of extinction risk to populations of Sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Concern about the decline of wild salmon has attracted the attention of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The IUCN applies quantitative criteria to assess risk of extinction and publishes its results on the Red List of Threatened Species. However, the focus is on the species level and thus may fail to show the risk to populations. The IUCN has adapted their criteria to apply to populations but there exist few examples of this type of assessment. We assessed the status of sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka as a model for application of the IUCN population-level assessments and to provide the first global assessment of the status of an anadromous Pacific salmon.

Methods/principal findings

We found from demographic data that the sockeye sa

SUBMITTER: Rand PS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3325247 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature