| Summary: | Fragmentation of rivers due to the rapid expansion of hydropower plants is one of the major factors responsible for the decline in the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) in the Baltic Sea. Current methods to aid downstream migrating salmon smolt still struggle with effectively stopping the smolt from going through the hydropower turbines, by guiding them towards the available salmon ladders. A promising guiding method is using a barrier of bubbles which may serve as a non-intrusive alternative to conventional guiding structures. This study evaluated the risk of artificial selection caused using bubble barriers and compared the results with an earlier study. The three hypotheses tested were: i) the salmon display a scototaxis behaviour related to their boldness, ii) temperature, and size of arena affect the scototaxis of the salmon, and iii) the salmons reaction to a bubble barrier is correlated to their boldness. The hypotheses were tested in a controlled laboratory setting by conducting three scototaxis tests and an experiment with several bubble barriers, where the reaction of salmon to bubbles could be assessed. There was significant positive correlation (r = 0,62 & p = 0,012) between the boldness of an individual and the time it took to swim through the bubbles. Even though a significant difference in scototaxis as a result of lowered temperature were discovered, the difference was too small to have a noticeable effect on the overall results. A bubble barrier may therefore put artificial selection pressure on the salmon population.
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