(Phys.org) —Newly published research co-authored by scientists at Simon Fraser University and the Raincoast Conservation Foundation shows juvenile coho salmon benefit from dining on the distant remains of their spawning pink and chum cousins.
While juvenile coho salmon feed directly on spawning pink and chum salmon carcasses and eggs, even coho with no direct contact with spawning pink and chum benefit from their nutrient contributions to stream ecosystems.
The new research shows that juvenile coho abundance is up to three times higher in streams with abundant pink and chum compared to streams with none.
John Reynolds, an SFU biologist, and Michelle Nelson, one of his doctoral students, have just had their paper Time-delayed subsidies: Interspecies population effects in salmon published in PLOS ONE, an international peer-reviewed journal.
The authors say their discovery underscores the importance of understanding how a fish's nutrient legacy in streams and forest ecosystems affects species close and distant to them.
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