The effect of habitat heterogeneity on the population density of juvenile Atlantic salmon Salmo salar L.
In each of eight sites in 2 years in Catamaran Brook and the Little Southwest Miramichi River, in New Brunswick, Canada, 36 boulders (median diameter = 0·20 m) were added to a 2 × 3 m quadrat in one treatment, all boulders were removed in another treatment, and one quadrat was left as a control. As...
| Published in: | Journal of Fish Biology |
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| Main Authors: | , , |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Wiley
2007
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8649.2006.01296.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1095-8649.2006.01296.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1095-8649.2006.01296.x |
| Summary: | In each of eight sites in 2 years in Catamaran Brook and the Little Southwest Miramichi River, in New Brunswick, Canada, 36 boulders (median diameter = 0·20 m) were added to a 2 × 3 m quadrat in one treatment, all boulders were removed in another treatment, and one quadrat was left as a control. As predicted, adding boulders increased the density of salmonid fishes, primarily juvenile Atlantic salmon Salmo salar , by 2·8‐fold, but had no significant effect on non‐territorial fishes, primarily cyprinids and catostomids. Moreover, the effect of adding boulders was greatest for age 0+ year Atlantic salmon, intermediate for age 1+ year Atlantic salmon and had no effect on age 2+ year Atlantic salmon. The results suggest that adding boulders is an effective short‐term technique for increasing the density of stream‐dwelling salmonids. |
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