Climate and human exploitation have regulated Atlantic salmon populations in the River Spey, Scotland, over the last 2000 years
Historical salmon catch records suggest that climatic variability, and more recently human exploitation, control patterns of abundance in Atlantic salmon populations. We present the first long-term (2000-year) reconstruction of Atlantic Salmon population variations based on a Marine Derived Nutrient...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/09596836221095983 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/09596836221095983 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/09596836221095983 |
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crsagepubl:10.1177/09596836221095983 2023-05-15T15:30:18+02:00 Climate and human exploitation have regulated Atlantic salmon populations in the River Spey, Scotland, over the last 2000 years Sear, David Langdon, Pete Leng, Melanie Edwards, Mary Heaton, Tim Langdon, Catherine Leyland, Julian Atlantic Salmon Trust 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/09596836221095983 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/09596836221095983 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/09596836221095983 en eng SAGE Publications https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ CC-BY-NC The Holocene volume 32, issue 8, page 780-793 ISSN 0959-6836 1477-0911 Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change journal-article 2022 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836221095983 2022-08-12T11:31:28Z Historical salmon catch records suggest that climatic variability, and more recently human exploitation, control patterns of abundance in Atlantic salmon populations. We present the first long-term (2000-year) reconstruction of Atlantic Salmon population variations based on a Marine Derived Nutrient (MDN) lake sediment record. Our record is constructed from nitrogen isotopes (δ 15 N) measured from a lake sediment core, which we compare with an escapement index (EI) derived from historic net catch data on major Scottish salmon rivers. We used an isotope mixing model to demonstrate that the N isotope values are likely enriched with MDN and demonstrate that Loch Insh sediments are enriched compared with a control site (Loch Vaa) that has never had exposure to salmon. We demonstrate that current adult spawner returns are around half that of historic values prior to major human exploitation. Before the onset of widespread human exploitation and habitat degradation, large fluctuations in salmon abundance are attributed to variations in North Atlantic sea surface temperature. While our data support published reconstructions of declining Atlantic salmon stocks in Northwest European rivers over the last 1000 years, rather than point to a solely human cause, the human impact appears to be overprinted on larger-scale changes in marine habitat occurring at the transition from the warmer Medieval Climatic Anomaly (MCA) to the cooler Little Ice Age (LIA). Article in Journal/Newspaper Atlantic salmon North Atlantic SAGE Publications (via Crossref) The Holocene 32 8 780 793 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
SAGE Publications (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crsagepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change |
spellingShingle |
Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change Sear, David Langdon, Pete Leng, Melanie Edwards, Mary Heaton, Tim Langdon, Catherine Leyland, Julian Climate and human exploitation have regulated Atlantic salmon populations in the River Spey, Scotland, over the last 2000 years |
topic_facet |
Paleontology Earth-Surface Processes Ecology Archeology Global and Planetary Change |
description |
Historical salmon catch records suggest that climatic variability, and more recently human exploitation, control patterns of abundance in Atlantic salmon populations. We present the first long-term (2000-year) reconstruction of Atlantic Salmon population variations based on a Marine Derived Nutrient (MDN) lake sediment record. Our record is constructed from nitrogen isotopes (δ 15 N) measured from a lake sediment core, which we compare with an escapement index (EI) derived from historic net catch data on major Scottish salmon rivers. We used an isotope mixing model to demonstrate that the N isotope values are likely enriched with MDN and demonstrate that Loch Insh sediments are enriched compared with a control site (Loch Vaa) that has never had exposure to salmon. We demonstrate that current adult spawner returns are around half that of historic values prior to major human exploitation. Before the onset of widespread human exploitation and habitat degradation, large fluctuations in salmon abundance are attributed to variations in North Atlantic sea surface temperature. While our data support published reconstructions of declining Atlantic salmon stocks in Northwest European rivers over the last 1000 years, rather than point to a solely human cause, the human impact appears to be overprinted on larger-scale changes in marine habitat occurring at the transition from the warmer Medieval Climatic Anomaly (MCA) to the cooler Little Ice Age (LIA). |
author2 |
Atlantic Salmon Trust |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Sear, David Langdon, Pete Leng, Melanie Edwards, Mary Heaton, Tim Langdon, Catherine Leyland, Julian |
author_facet |
Sear, David Langdon, Pete Leng, Melanie Edwards, Mary Heaton, Tim Langdon, Catherine Leyland, Julian |
author_sort |
Sear, David |
title |
Climate and human exploitation have regulated Atlantic salmon populations in the River Spey, Scotland, over the last 2000 years |
title_short |
Climate and human exploitation have regulated Atlantic salmon populations in the River Spey, Scotland, over the last 2000 years |
title_full |
Climate and human exploitation have regulated Atlantic salmon populations in the River Spey, Scotland, over the last 2000 years |
title_fullStr |
Climate and human exploitation have regulated Atlantic salmon populations in the River Spey, Scotland, over the last 2000 years |
title_full_unstemmed |
Climate and human exploitation have regulated Atlantic salmon populations in the River Spey, Scotland, over the last 2000 years |
title_sort |
climate and human exploitation have regulated atlantic salmon populations in the river spey, scotland, over the last 2000 years |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/09596836221095983 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/09596836221095983 http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/09596836221095983 |
genre |
Atlantic salmon North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
Atlantic salmon North Atlantic |
op_source |
The Holocene volume 32, issue 8, page 780-793 ISSN 0959-6836 1477-0911 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836221095983 |
container_title |
The Holocene |
container_volume |
32 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
780 |
op_container_end_page |
793 |
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1766360743497695232 |