Quantifying and describing an energy transfer from pink salmon to steelhead

 

I am generally interested in marine and aquatic trophic webs, salmonids, and plastic traits. The purpose of my research is to determine how different sized pink salmon runs affect the size of steelhead runs in the Keogh River. We know that young steelhead eat pink salmon eggs drifting downstream during spawning, and that this should increase the size and number of steelhead migrating to sea. However, a) we do not how many pink salmon spawners are needed to maximize steelhead runs, and b) we don’t know how many pink salmon eggs are needed to maximize the number of steelhead migrating to sea. Answering these questions will facilitate moving towards multi-species and ecosystem-based management.

​

Colin's Website

 

Email: cjbailey@sfu.ca