Presentation Abstract

Advances in Understanding the Drivers of Change and Potential Conservation Actions for Pacific Herring in the Salish Sea

This session offered the latest results from researchers in the USA and Canada based upon cutting-edge approaches to understanding what limits Pacific herring populations in the Salish Sea, which are in decline in many places, and what management actions can be taken to ensure their recovery and conservation.

Margaret (Megsie) Siple described the importance of population diversity in Pacific herring for maintaining their overall stability (i.e., portfolio effects), and presented population model results showing increased adult mortality and age truncation (i.e., loss of older ages) over recent decades.

Lorenz Hauser showed the most recent genetic microsatellite support for metapopulation structure in Puget Sound herring, i.e., subpopulations going extinct and recolonizing, driven by a combination of spawn timing and geographic distance, potentially with learned social migration behavior.

Herring genetic diversity based upon spawn timing was further supported by Eleni Petrou’s work; Petrou used an advanced restriction site-associated (RAD) sequencing approach to determine that genetic differentiation increases with difference in spawn timing. Petrou’s results also supported the idea that populations with similar spawn timing are connected by migration.

Finally, two presentations shed new light on potential challenges to early life stages of herring. Brooke Love presented recent research showing that high temperatures result in larval mortality and abnormalities, while adding acidified conditions (high pCO2 levels) to high temperatures additionally led to respiratory difficulties, suggesting that both warming and acidification are factors that negatively affect herring development.

Louisa Harding presented results showing for the first time that herring are also negatively impacted by stormwater runoff: inability to mobilize yolk energy stores, and cardiac stress when exposed to stormwater. Together, these results fill some major gaps in our understanding about limitations to recovery for herring in the Salish Sea, and suggest potential ways forward.

Session Title

Session Description: Advances in Understanding the Drivers of Change and Potential Conservation Actions for Pacific Herring in the Salish Sea

Keywords

Pacific herring

Conference Track

SSE11: Species and Food Webs

Conference Name

Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference (2018 : Seattle, Wash.)

Document Type

Event

SSEC Identifier

SSE11: Session Description

Start Date

6-4-2018 1:30 PM

End Date

6-4-2018 3:00 PM

Type of Presentation

Oral

Genre/Form

conference proceedings; presentations (communicative events)

Contributing Repository

Digital content made available by University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.

Subjects – Topical (LCSH)

Pacific herring--Monitoring--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.); Fish stock assessment--Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)

Geographic Coverage

Salish Sea (B.C. and Wash.)

Comments

This is an extended abstract for the session.

Rights

This resource is displayed for educational purposes only and may be subject to U.S. and international copyright laws. For more information about rights or obtaining copies of this resource, please contact University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University, Bellingham, WA 98225-9103, USA (360-650-7534; heritage.resources@wwu.edu) and refer to the collection name and identifier. Any materials cited must be attributed to the Salish Sea Ecosystem Conference Records, University Archives, Heritage Resources, Western Libraries, Western Washington University.

Type

Text

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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Apr 6th, 1:30 PM Apr 6th, 3:00 PM

Advances in Understanding the Drivers of Change and Potential Conservation Actions for Pacific Herring in the Salish Sea

Advances in Understanding the Drivers of Change and Potential Conservation Actions for Pacific Herring in the Salish Sea

This session offered the latest results from researchers in the USA and Canada based upon cutting-edge approaches to understanding what limits Pacific herring populations in the Salish Sea, which are in decline in many places, and what management actions can be taken to ensure their recovery and conservation.

Margaret (Megsie) Siple described the importance of population diversity in Pacific herring for maintaining their overall stability (i.e., portfolio effects), and presented population model results showing increased adult mortality and age truncation (i.e., loss of older ages) over recent decades.

Lorenz Hauser showed the most recent genetic microsatellite support for metapopulation structure in Puget Sound herring, i.e., subpopulations going extinct and recolonizing, driven by a combination of spawn timing and geographic distance, potentially with learned social migration behavior.

Herring genetic diversity based upon spawn timing was further supported by Eleni Petrou’s work; Petrou used an advanced restriction site-associated (RAD) sequencing approach to determine that genetic differentiation increases with difference in spawn timing. Petrou’s results also supported the idea that populations with similar spawn timing are connected by migration.

Finally, two presentations shed new light on potential challenges to early life stages of herring. Brooke Love presented recent research showing that high temperatures result in larval mortality and abnormalities, while adding acidified conditions (high pCO2 levels) to high temperatures additionally led to respiratory difficulties, suggesting that both warming and acidification are factors that negatively affect herring development.

Louisa Harding presented results showing for the first time that herring are also negatively impacted by stormwater runoff: inability to mobilize yolk energy stores, and cardiac stress when exposed to stormwater. Together, these results fill some major gaps in our understanding about limitations to recovery for herring in the Salish Sea, and suggest potential ways forward.