Distribution, habitat use, and migratory life history of Southern Dolly Varden (Salvelinus malma lordi) in a salmon-bearing watershed on the Central Coast, British Columbia
department or school: Science, Faculty of
department or school: Zoology, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Heavyside, Julian
issued: 2021-04-29T17:44:45Z
issued: 2021
related degree: Master of Science - MSc
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Anadromous freshwater fishes are among the most threatened vertebrates in North America. Population declines and collapses due to overfishing, habitat loss, and climate change have long been documented for socioeconomically important salmonids such as Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp), but the conservation status of other species such as Dolly Varden char (Salvelinus malma) remains largely unknown. Even without the pressures of direct commercial harvest, many anadromous salmonids may still be vulnerable to the other threats faced by commercially-harvested species, but conservation efforts continue to be hampered by a lack of basic life history and demographic information. While the Northern Dolly Varden (S. m. malma) has been assessed as “Special Concern” by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada, the Southern Dolly Varden (S. m. lordi) has received little conservation attention despite near ubiquity in coastal watersheds from Alaska to Washington, partly due to a lack of data throughout the broad coastal range. I conducted surveys on a population of Southern Dolly Varden in a lake-headed coastal watershed on the mid coast of British Columbia to identify key spawning, rearing, and foraging habitat, to characterize seasonal patterns in their iteroparous anadromous migratory life history, and to assess the extent of migratory coupling among Pacific salmon and Dolly Varden throughout the year. I found that Dolly Varden used a wide range of habitats distributed throughout the entire watershed, and that there were distinct seasonal movements that were temporally associated with Pacific salmon migrations. My observations indicate that this population of Southern Dolly Varden requires the entire extent of the watershed, from lake tributaries to the estuarine river mouth, for individuals to express their complete migratory life history, and that this population is vulnerable to any disturbance leading to the degradation or loss of access to key habitat…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/78050
note: DISTRIBUTION, HABITAT USE, AND MIGRATORY LIFE HISTORY OF SOUTHERN DOLLY VARDEN (Salvelinus malma lordi) IN A SALMON-BEARING WATERSHED ON THE CENTRAL COAST, BRITISH COLUMBIA by Julian Heavyside B.Sc., The University of British Columbia, 2016 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Zoology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2021 © Julian Heavyside, 2021 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled: DISTRIBUTION, HABITAT USE, AND MIGRATORY LIFE HISTORY OF SOUTHERN DOLLY VARDEN (Salvelinus malma lordi) IN A SALMON-BEARING WATERSHED ON THE CENTRAL COAST, BRITISH COLUMBIA submitted by Julian Heavyside in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Zoology Examining Committee: Eric B. Taylor, Department of Zoology, UBC Supervisor Jill Jankowski, Department of Zoology, UBC Supervisory Committee Member Michelle Tseng, Department of Botany and Zoology, UBC Additional Examiner Additional Supervisory Committee Members: Scott Hinch, Department of Zoology and Faculty of Forestry, UBC Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract Anadromous freshwater fishes are among the most threatened vertebrates in North America. Population declines and collapses due to overfishing, habitat loss, and climate change have long been documented for socioeconomically important salmonids such as Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp), but the conservation status of other species such as Dolly Varden char (Salvelinus malma) remains largely unknown. Even without the pressures of direct commercial harvest, many anadromous salmonids may still be vulnerable to the other threats faced by commercially-harvested species, but conservation efforts continue to be hampered by a lack of basic life history and demographic information. While the Nort…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2021-11
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0397105
language: eng
degree discipline: Zoology
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/78050