Don Larsen, Abby Fuhrman, Deb Harstad, Dina Spangenberg, Brian Beckman NOAA Fisheries, Seattle Chris Kozfkay, Pete Hassemer IDFG

A “common garden” approach to understanding stock differences in Columbia basin hatchery minijack production

Outline • Introduction • Briefly review previous results from Harstad et al.

2014 as experimental lead in. • A “common garden” experiment to isolate

genetic vs. environmental effects on minijack rate • The effect of resource competition on minijack

rate in integrated and segregated stocks • Conclusions • A word about Red Fish Lake Sockeye

SUMMER CHINOOK LIFEHISTORY?

Hatchery spring/summer Chinook life history

Yearling Smolt 1+ yr (spring)

“Microjack”

Variation in Age of Male Maturity

Factors Affecting Age of Maturation

Mature male salmon

Genetics Environment

• temperature • food availability • food energy content

G x E interaction

Growth &

Body energy stores

The Hatchery environment can significantly influence age of maturation

“Sharpie”

Minijack

Jack

Age-4

Age-5

• 11-Ketotestosterone (11-KT) • Major androgen in teleost fish • Regulates spermatogenesis

11-KT

Onset of spermatogenesis

Early Spring (prior to Fall Spawn)

How to detect a minijack?

• Visual inspection of the testes

How to detect a minijack?

Summer (prior to Fall spawn)

Maturing Testes

Late Spring (prior to Fall Spawn)

Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 2014

9 Spring Chinook hatchery programs 5 Summer Chinook hatchery programs

• BYs: 1999-2010

• # of years sampled ranged from 1 to 12 years

Hatchery Facility

Acclimation Site

STOCK

Linear Regression: R2 = 0.63 p = 0.003

STOCK

Spring Chinook: Minijack rate is strongly correlated with size at release

% M

inija

cks

Size at Release (mm)

Spring Chinook: STOCK: LOCATION

Size at Release (mm)

% M

inija

cks

Integrated

Segregated

Integrated spring Chinook hatchery populations sampled had higher minijack

rates, even with smaller size at release

• These segregated programs have been in place for several decades

• An example of domestication selection?

Why do we care?

Ecological impacts Genetic impacts

Loss of adult production

Alter accuracy of Smolt-to-adult (SAR) return rates

Potential source of domestication

A common garden experimental approach

A valid question:

How do you know variation in minijack rate isn’t just due to rearing differences at the various hatcheries?

Winthrop

Imnaha Rapid R.

Carson

Sawtooth

Pahsimeroi McCall

Integrated Segregated Both

Common garden experiment

480 480 480 480 480 480 480

480 480 480 480 480 480 480

480

480

480

480

Snake R. Columbia R.

480

480

• Match growth rates • Compare minijack rates and

threshold size at age for maturation

Replicate tanks and different populations grew nearly identically

Date

15-18 fish per pound at release

Minijack rates varied by nearly 7-fold

Mean = 4.3%

4.6%

9.8%

7.7%

23.3%

19.0%

16.7%

28.4%

Life history

Size/Growth rate

Minijack

Smolt

Alternate life-history strategies have been modeled as threshold traits

Hazel et al. 1990

Hutchings and Myers 1994

Aubin-Horth and Dodson 2004

Piche’ et al. 2008

Logistic regression used to compare threshold growth rate for parr maturation

Thresholds vary among stocks

Common garden experiments with hybrid crosses create intermediate thresholds

Ilustrates the genetic component to the threshold

1 CAR 2 PAH-I 3 WIN 4 PAH-S 5 RAP 6 SAW-S 7 SAW-I 8 IMN

Pr (M

atur

atio

n)

Fork Length (mm)

Over a 20 mm difference in the size-at-age threshold (PMRN) among populations

20 mm

50%

What happened to the McCall fish in the Common Garden study?

McCall Competition Experiment • McCall INT and SEG stocks were

ponded in two separate 8 ft. diameter circulars in March

• PIT tagged 2400 fish on Aug. 26-28 (1200 per group)

• Combined Integrated and Segregated into 4 tanks: 2 Hi feed, 2 Lo Feed (600 per tank, 300 INT + 300 SEG) so they can complete.

INT/SEG

INT/SEG

Low Winter Feed (2X/wk)

INT/SEG

INT/SEG

High Winter Feed (3X/wk)

MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY Month

Common Garden and McCall combined analysis

McCall stocks (Hi feed) had the highest MJ rates

4.3% 4.6% 9.8%

7.7%

23.3%

19.0% 16.7%

28.4%

44.2%

42.5%

22.2%

13.2%

9% higher

What about sampling fish at the hatchery directly?

Sampling design

• BY 2013 Sawtooth and McCall (INT+SEG) • BY2014 Sawtooth, McCall, Pahsimeroi (INT+SEG)

and Rapid River (SEG) • 300 fish per population for length, weight, sex,

plasma for 11-KT just prior to release

Rapid R.

Sawtooth

Pahsimeroi McCall

Integrated Segregated Both

Seattle

35.1%

38.8% 38.7%

19.4%

4.1% 5.8% 4.7%

BY 2014 hatchery survey

We found variation in MJ rates among stocks and between brood years

BY 2013 hatchery survey

2.6%

35.7%

22.3%

15.4%

High BKD reported

How do rates at the hatcheries compare with rates in our laboratory scale studies?

Minijack rates in Hatchery surveys vs. Common Garden/McCall show some relationship, but not

significant

BY20

14 C

omm

on G

arde

n M

inija

ck R

ates

• Different hatchery stocks vary in their “sensitivity” to early male maturation

• Results suggest integrated stocks have a lower MJ/size threshold than segregated stocks

• McCall fish are very sensitive to early male maturation. Even modest Autumn-Winter rations resulted in high MJ rates

• Under lower ration conditions an integrated stock matured at a higher rate than a segregated stock

Conclusions

The Future • Further analyze current data • We took fin clips from all these fish for potential RAD

seq analysis for mapping genotype to phenotype in the future

• Hopefully sample hatchery stocks from BY 2015 to increase survey #’s especially in light of annual variation in some stocks

• Incorporate jack rates in to analysis • Explore early drivers of differences in threshold (i.e.

egg size, egg-fry metabolic rate, emergence time, others)

• Write peer review publications of results

• Monitor for early male maturation before release

• Growth profiles in the hatchery may need to be tailored to accommodate variation in sensitivity

Hatchery management implications

Frequent Question: If there are so many minijacks why aren’t adult sex rations more skewed towards females?

Wild Adult Escapement by Stock by Gender

Data provided by Carlos Camacho, IDFG

100 juveniles

50 females 50 males (40% minijacks)

50 female smolts 30 male smolts, 20 minijacks

Males return as jacks which have one less year in the ocean, thus higher survival Studies have shown that females experience higher exploitation rates in the ocean (Spidel et al. 1988; Holtby and Healy 1990)

Adult Gender Compensation

~60:40

Pretend No

smolt-to-adult mortality

50 female adults 30 male adults

80 adults

50/80 =62.5% Female, 30/80 =37.5% Male

A simplistic thought exercise for my simplistic brain?

Slide Number 1OutlineSlide Number 3Slide Number 4Slide Number 5How to detect a minijack?Slide Number 79 Spring Chinook hatchery programs �5 Summer Chinook hatchery programsSlide Number 9Spring Chinook: Minijack rate is strongly correlated with size at releaseSpring Chinook:Integrated spring Chinook hatchery populations sampled had higher minijack rates, even with smaller size at releaseSlide Number 13A common garden experimental approachSlide Number 15Slide Number 16Slide Number 17Slide Number 18Slide Number 19Slide Number 20Slide Number 21Slide Number 22Slide Number 23What happened to the McCall fish in the Common Garden study?McCall Competition ExperimentSlide Number 26McCall stocks (Hi feed) had the highest MJ rates What about sampling fish at the hatchery directly?Sampling designSlide Number 30We found variation in MJ rates among stocks and between brood yearsHow do rates at the hatcheries compare with rates in our laboratory scale studies?Minijack rates in Hatchery surveys vs. Common Garden/McCall show some relationship, but not significantConclusionsThe FutureHatchery management implicationsSlide Number 37Wild Adult Escapement by Stock by GenderSlide Number 39