Abstract
Global climate change is predicted to be a major force in altering ecosystem processes and animal behavior worldwide in the coming years. Currently, many Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. stocks are imperiled due to harvest, habitat loss, and anthropogenic disturbance across much of their native range, and climate change has been predicted to have further negative effects on these species. Artificial propagation has been used by multiple resource agencies to conserve salmon pop- ulations and increase numbers in the Columbia River watershed, including the National Fish Hatch- ery (NFH) system in the Pacific Northwest, which annually produces more than 60 million juvenile Pacific salmonids. The species and populations that are supplemented through the NFH system, as well as operations at the NFHs themselves, will be affected by global climate change and forced to adapt. This review provides a preliminary summary of the potential effects of climate change on the NFH system in the Pacific Northwest, focusing on the topics that will be of most relevance to NFH operations. A series of proactive measures, which are in various stages of action, are outlined that should quantify climate change threats to the operations of specific NFHs and allow for flexibility in adjusting operations to continue to meet conservation and supplementation goals in the face of an uncertain future.
Highlights
Global climate change has been forecast to cause perturbations to ecosystem functions worldwide in the 21st century, possibly inducing a series of conservation issues for populations and species that are adapted to current local conditions (Markham 1996, Halpin 1997, Sala et al 2000, McCarty 2001)
Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. share a set of complex life history characteristics that especially predispose them to being threatened by climate change
This review provides a summary of the potential effects of global climate change on the National Fish Hatchery (NFH) system in the Pacific Northwest; the discussion and recommendations for hatchery operations and management should provide a framework that — combined with the use of appropriate information related to local hatchery operations and improved regional climate models — can be applied to aquaculture systems worldwide after gathering appropriate data and development of regional models of future climate change scenarios
Summary
Global climate change has been forecast to cause perturbations to ecosystem functions worldwide in the 21st century, possibly inducing a series of conservation issues for populations and species that are adapted to current local conditions (Markham 1996, Halpin 1997, Sala et al 2000, McCarty 2001). We provide recommendations for a set of proactive actions designed to assist in the refinement of existing scenarios of future climate change that provide specific information for NFH and regional managers. These recommendations are aimed at internal hatchery processes, and help establish cause-and-effect relationships between performance, agency actions, and funding as they relate to climate change issues. Implementation of these recommendations, coupled with continued climate change forecasting and monitoring, will provide information to formulate facilityspecific operational plans that should help mitigate any potentially adverse effects
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