Distribution and Relative Abundance of Reintroduced Atlantic Salmon, Salmo salar, in Lake Ontario Tributaries Using Environmental DNA

• Main Author: Lulat, Nabeelah
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: University of Windsor 2023
• Subjects: Atlantic salmon; Lake Ontario; Salmo salar; Other Life Sciences
• Online Access: https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/8939; https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/context/etd/article/9947/viewcontent/Distribution_and_Relative_Abun.pdf

Plans to reintroduce Atlantic salmon in Lake Ontario tributaries consists of stocking hatchery-reared fish yearly which will help to achieve a self-sustaining population. The issue with reintroduction remains in understanding the distribution of fishes after stocking. Environmental DNA (eDNA) provides a sensitive approach for monitoring that can offer inferences into fish distribution. I determined the distribution of stocked Atlantic salmon downstream from stocking sites using qRT-PCR and metabarcoding. I found that Atlantic salmon eDNA detection was more sensitive using qRT-PCR (51%) versus metabarcoding HTS (18.3%). However, metabarcoding provided data on fish community assemblages, which can help to monitor ecological interactions. I also found that eDNA and microsatellite markers genotyped and assigned an estimate number of individuals to 68.3% of the positive Atlantic salmon NGS data. This data indicates that eDNA and microsatellites can be used as a non-invasive method to quantify and monitor communities.