1. Environmental effects on salmon
Much of my research focuses on how environmental variability, including both natural and human drivers, affects specific life stages of Pacific salmon as well as the cumulative effects measured over their entire life cycle. Some of this work is retrospective and some is specifically aimed at forecasting future responses. Examples include estimating effects of hatchery practices on wild populations, forecasting climate-induced shifts in marine survival, and examining how juvenile migration timing affects their survival to adulthood.
Representative publications:
- Scheuerell MD, Zabel RW, Sandford BP. 2009. Relating juvenile migration timing and survival to adulthood in two species of threatened Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.). Journal of Applied Ecology
- Buhle ER, Holsman KK, Scheuerell MD, Albaugh A. 2009. Using an unplanned experiment to evaluate the effects of hatcheries and environmental variation on threatened populations of wild salmon. Biological Conservation doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2009.05.013
- Scheuerell MD and Williams JG. 2005. Forecasting climate-induced changes in the survival of Snake River spring/summer Chinook salmon. Fisheries Oceanography 14: 448-457
2. Role of salmon in coastal ecosystems
Anadromous salmon serve as vectors of energy and nutrient transport from marine to freshwater ecosystems. My colleagues and I have been examining the extent to which marine-derived energy and nutrients permeate the freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems upon the salmon’s return to their natal spawning grounds. Previous research by our group and others has demonstrated that the structure and dynamics of freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems associated with anadromous salmon differ dramatically from those that lack any marine-derived resources. In particular, I study the influence of temporally-limited salmon eggs and carcasses on the diets, growth rates, and community structure of resident freshwater fishes such as rainbow trout, arctic grayling, and arctic char. These resident fishes show very different direct and indirect responses to the presence of anadromous salmon, illustrating the diverse coupling between ocean dynamics and trophic structure in freshwater ecosystems.
Representative publications:
- Scheuerell MD, Moore JW, Schindler DE, Harvey CJ. 2007. Varying effects of anadromous sockeye salmon on the trophic ecology of two species of resident salmonids in southwest Alaska. Freshwater Biology 52: 1944-1956
- Scheuerell MD, Levin PS, Zabel RW, Williams JG, Sanderson BL. 2005. A new perspective on the importance of marine-derived nutrients to threatened stocks of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus sp.). Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 62: 961-964
- Schindler DE, Scheuerell MD, Moore JW, Gende SM, Francis TB, Palen WJ. 2003. Pacific salmon and the ecology of coastal ecosystems. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 1: 31-37
3. Comparative analysis of aquatic ecosystems
Together with colleagues Eli Holmes, Stephanie Hampton, and Steve Katz, we are developing multivariate state-space models for use in analyzing food web interactions and community stability in aquatic ecosystems. This work has grown out of a recent grant we had funded through the NOAA-NSF program on Comparative Analysis of Marine Ecosystem Organization (CAMEO).
Representative publications:
- Hampton SE, Scheuerell MD, Schindler DE. 2006. Coalescence in the Lake Washington story: interaction strengths in a planktonic food web. Limnology and Oceanography 51: 2042-2051
- Rich HB, Quinn TP, Scheuerell MD, Schindler DE. 2009. Climate and intra-specific competition control the growth and life history of juvenile sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) in Iliamna Lake, Alaska. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 66: 238-246