Ontogenetic shift to dependence on salmon-derived nutrients in Dolly Varden char from the Iliamna River, Alaska

Abstract

The upstream migration, spawning, and death of anadromous, semelparous Pacific salmon brings nutrients to terrestrial and aquatic communities around the Pacific Rim. Many fishes use these resources but the relationship between fish body size and the reliance on salmon-derived nutrients might follow one of several patterns related to the onset of egg consumption with body size as fish grow, and possible shifts to alternative prey such as fishes as they grow larger still. In this study, these size-dependent hypotheses of marine subsidy use by resident Dolly Varden, Salvelinus malma, were tested using diet and stable isotope analyses. S. malma did not shift abruptly to a reliance on salmon eggs after they became large enough to eat eggs (i.e., no gape limitation). Rather, fish large enough to eat eggs but < 150 mm showed diets that blended salmon nutrients with aquatic insects, likely because they were spatially segregated from the highest concentration of spawning sockeye salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka. From intermediate through the largest sizes observed (150 to > 600 mm long) S. malma received ca. 80 % of their nutrients from salmon (eggs, flesh, and maggots that had scavenged dead salmon) based on diet analysis and stable isotope ratios despite being large enough to consume fish, as many similarly-sized salmonids do in other ecosystems. The few fish sampled in June, prior to the availability of salmon subsidies, had stable isotope signatures that also reflected heavy (ca. 90 %) reliance on marine sources, likely because they had eaten little since the end of the salmon run the previous fall. This apparent avoidance of piscivory in favor a rich yet pulsed marine subsidy highlights the importance of healthy salmon runs for the sake of not only the salmon but resident fishes that consume them.