Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
PowerPoint Presentation
Slide 3
If domestication does occur, we would expect…
- offspring of hatchery fish to be dominant in scramble competition
Purpose
- Compare dominance, aggression, and growth among offspring of three different lines of Yakima basin spring Chinook salmon that vary in hatchery ancestry (contest and scramble competition)
Three lines compared
- Naches (N) – offspring of adults from the Naches basin; no artificial propagation
- Supplementation (S) – offspring of natural origin adults in supplemented population of the upper Yakima (“S” fish were wild in 2003 and 2004)
- Hatchery (H) – offspring of hatchery origin adults in the upper Yakima (2007 begins the second generation)
Methods
- Common garden experiment
- Experiments were conducted for 7 days in 80, 30 gallon glass aquaria
- Measured dominance, aggression, and growth among paired fish (S vs N, S vs H, N vs H)
Experimental Arenas
Slide 9
Replicates
Percent Dominance - Contest
Aggression – Contest
(difference in interaction rate)
Growth – Contest
(difference in growth rate, mg)
Summary - Contest
- Results were similar between 2003-2005 and revealed that aggression and growth were significantly higher in offspring of wild/supp than hatchery origin fish
- Reversal of results in 2006 which appears to be from offspring of Hatchery line
Percent Dominance - Scramble
Aggression – Scramble
(difference in interaction rate)
Growth – Scramble
(difference in growth rate, mg)
Summary - Scramble
- Offspring of hatchery line were more dominant than offspring of S fish in 2006, but not in 2003 and 2004
- Offspring of wild fish were more aggressive in scramble replicates in 2003 and 2004, but the opposite was true in 2006
- hatchery origin fish lost less weight than wild origin fish in 2003 and 2004, but not in 2006
Implications
- Significant deviations in behavior may occur among years which could result in more years to detect overall differences
- Few studies have reported temporal variation in behavioral dominance (assumed constant across years) or used large numbers of parents so reported differences could be due to temporal differences or family effects
Acknowledgements
- Staff at CESRF (Charles Strom et al.)
- Marilee Webster, Josh McCarty, Germaine Hart, Charity Davidson, Keith Pitts, Natalia Pitts, Tim Webster, Kurt Saltzman, Kevin Mahoney, Bryan Johnson
- David Byrnes and Patty Smith and Bonneville Power Administration
Domestication
- Raising fish in hatcheries can cause unintended behavioral changes in salmonids due to domestication selection
- Change in genetics due to selection in an artificial environment; Natural selection in an artificial environment