Watershed-scale climate influences productivity of Chinook salmon populations across southcentral Alaska.

ABSTRACT: The ecosystems supporting Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) are changing rapidly as a result of climate change and habitat alteration. Understanding how-and how consistently-salmon populations respond to changes at regional and watershed scales has major implications for fisheries management and habitat conservation. Chinook salmon (O. tshawytscha) populations across Alaska have declined over the past decade, resulting in fisheries closures and prolonged impacts to local communities. These declines are associated with large-scale climate drivers, but uncertainty remains about the role of local conditions (e.g., precipitation, streamflow, and stream temperature) that vary among the watersheds where salmon spawn and rear. We estimated the effects of these and other environmental indicators

SUBMITTER: Jones LA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7496363 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature