Characterizing diversity in salmon from the Pacific Northwest*

Abstract

Information developed during recently completed evaluations of the status of seven species of anadromous Pacific salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.) in the Pacific Northwest was used to characterize patterns of intraspecific diversity along three major axes: ecology, life history and biochemical genetics. Within the study area, the species’ ranges, and therefore the number of distinct ecological regions inhabited differ considerably, with pink and chum salmon limited to the northern areas and chinook salmon and steelhead distributed over the widest geographic range. The species showed comparable differences in the patterns of life history and genetic diversity, with chinook and sockeye salmon and steelhead having the most major diversity groups and pink, chum and coho salmon having the least. Both life history and genetic diversity showed a strong, positive correlation with the extent of ecological diversity experienced by a species, and the correlation between the number of major genetic and life history groups within a species was even stronger (r=0.96; P<0.05). Departures from these general diversity relationships found in some species (especially sockeye and coho salmon and cutthroat trout) can be explained by different interactions with the freshwater environment and, for cutthroat trout, by the occurrence of substantial intrapopulational diversity in life history traits, a hierarchical level not considered in this study.