Ontogenetic selection on hatchery salmon in the wild: natural selection on artificial phenotypes

Captive rearing often alters the phenotypes of organisms that are destined for release into the wild. Natural selection on these unnatural phenotypes could have important consequences for the utility of captive rearing as a restoration approach. We show that normal hatchery practices significantly a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Evolutionary applications 2010-07, Vol.3 (4), p.340-351
Main Authors: Bailey, Michael M., Lachapelle, Kevin A., Kinnison, Michael T.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aquatic sciences
Atlantic salmon
Climate change
Conservation biology
deleterious domestication
Ecology
Endangered species
Evolution
Fish hatcheries
Fisheries management
Natural selection
Ontogeny
Original
otoliths
phenology
Phenotypes
Predation
Quantitative genetics
Salmon
Trout
Wildlife conservation
Zoology
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Summary:Captive rearing often alters the phenotypes of organisms that are destined for release into the wild. Natural selection on these unnatural phenotypes could have important consequences for the utility of captive rearing as a restoration approach. We show that normal hatchery practices significantly advance the development of endangered Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) fry by 30+ days. As a result, hatchery fry might be expected to face strong natural selection resulting from their developmental asynchrony. We investigated patterns of ontogenetic selection acting on hatchery produced salmon fry by experimentally manipulating fry development stage at stocking. Contrary to simple predictions, we found evidence for strong stabilizing selection on the ontogeny of unfed hatchery fry, with weaker evidence for positive directional selection on the ontogeny of fed fry. These selection patterns suggest a seasonally independent tradeoff between abiotic or biotic selection favoring advanced development and physiological selection linked to risk of starvation in unfed fry. We show, through a heuristic exercise, how such selection on ontogeny may exacerbate problems in restoration efforts by impairing fry productivity and reducing effective population sizes by 13–81%.
ISSN:1752-4571
1752-4571
DOI:10.1111/j.1752-4571.2009.00115.x