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Delivery of marine-derived nutrients to streambeds by Pacific salmon

Nature Geoscience volume 1, pages 840–843 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Marine fish that migrate to freshwater rivers to spawn deliver substantial quantities of marine-derived nutrients to terrestrial and freshwater environments1,2. These nutrients support riparian vegetation3, terrestrial organisms4, benthic macroinvertebrates5, algae6 and other fish populations1. Although it is known that the quantity of nutrients delivered to these environments is influenced by the number of spawning salmon7, little is known about the mechanisms of nutrient delivery. Here, we present a pathway for nutrient delivery and retention in a Pacific salmon stream, which depends on the aggregation of inorganic and organic particulate matter8. We verify the existence of this pathway in the controlled environment conditions of a recirculating flume, replicating the hydrologic conditions of a stream environment. We show that the addition of salmon organic matter and clay to the flume increases the formation of organic–inorganic aggregates in the water column, and the transfer of these aggregates to the stream bed. We find that the formation of these aggregates is associated with an increase in the concentration of bacteria in the stream bed. We suggest that bacterial aggregation of salmon organic matter and inorganic particulate matter delivers nutrients to streambeds, and thus plays an integral role in nutrient cycling in Pacific salmon streams.

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Figure 1: The salmon–floc feedback loop.
Figure 2: Cumulative grain-size distributions for (a) in situ suspended sediment and (b) gravel-stored sediments as determined by a 12 h settling study.
Figure 3: Mean effective particle size for the d84 and d16 of gravel-stored fine sediment following each treatment.
Figure 4: Treatment means for attached and unattached bacterial concentrations from gravel-bed sediment collected in the recirculating flume.

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Acknowledgements

We thank R. Holmes, B. Best and R. Rujanschi for construction of channels at the QRRC; N. D. Williams for his work with the flumes and the LISST-ST and J. Arocena, K. Hall, S. Macdonald and M. Shrimpton for comments on this project, as well as P. N. Owens for his review of the manuscript. Funding for the project was provided by a Natural Science and Engineering Research Council grant to E.L.P. This is Contribution 3 in the Quesnel River Research Center Publication Series.

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  1. Geography Program, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, British Columbia, V2N 4Z9, Canada

    John F. Rex & Ellen L. Petticrew

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  1. John F. Rex
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  2. Ellen L. Petticrew
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Contributions

This work represents the PhD focus of J.F.R. with the supervision and assistance of E.L.P. Conceptual planning of the experiment derives from earlier work by E.L.P. and J.F.R. in O’Ne-eil Creek. The manuscript was written by J.F.R. and revised and edited by both authors.

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Correspondence to John F. Rex.

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Rex, J., Petticrew, E. Delivery of marine-derived nutrients to streambeds by Pacific salmon. Nature Geosci 1, 840–843 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo364

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