Journal article
High prevalence of straying in a wild brown trout (Salmo trutta) population in a fjord system
Natal homing is a prevalent life-history strategy among salmonids. However, not all individuals return to their natal river, a behaviour known as straying. In this study, we investigated the prevalence of straying and its connection to different life-history characteristics in an anadromous brown trout (Salmo trutta) population.
In total, 21 538 juvenile out-migrating brown trout were tagged with Passive Integrated Transponder (PIT) tags in two years. Individuals were grouped according to their developmental status (parr, pre-smolt, and smolt) at the time of out-migration to investigate the effect of such life-history characteristic on the likelihood of straying.
High number of anadromous brown trout (36%) were detected in non-natal rivers. Individuals spending longer time at sea were less likely to stray. Additionally, the likelihood of straying was dependent on the developmental status during out-migration, with parr having lower likelihood to stray compared to pre-smolt and smolt.
However, the latter is further dependent on length and timing of juvenile out-migration. These results indicate that straying is an inherent part of this anadromous brown trout population and it is influenced by several life-history characteristics at different life stages. This may have significant implications to genetic structure within and between populations and to population dynamics.
Language: | English |
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Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Year: | 2022 |
Pages: | 1539-1547 |
ISSN: | 10959289 and 10543139 |
Types: | Journal article |
DOI: | 10.1093/icesjms/fsac079 |
ORCIDs: | Kaello, Kristi , Baktoft, Henrik , Kristensen, Martin Lykke , Birnie-Gauvin, Kim and Aarestrup, Kim |