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Low-fidelity homing behaviour of Biwa salmon Oncorhynchus sp. landlocked in Lake Biwa as inferred from otolith elemental and Sr isotopic compositions

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Abstract

Biwa salmon Oncorhynchus sp. is endemic to Lake Biwa, Japan, where it is an important commercial and recreational fisheries species. However, no information is currently available on its population structure and migration ecology. Therefore, here we evaluated whether otolith Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca and 87Sr/86Sr ratios can be used as natural signatures in Biwa salmon and then used these to determine the natal origins of lake-migration-phase individuals and spawning adults, and the homing ability of spawning adults in the Lake Biwa water system. Quadratic discriminant function analysis demonstrated that the lake-migration school comprised individuals with multiple origins, including rivers to the east, west and north of Lake Biwa, and that the homing rate of spawning adults was low (18 out of 80 individuals), with ca. 78% of fish straying into non-natal rivers. However, this straying behaviour was not spatially random, with fish tending to migrate upstream in rivers neighbouring their natal rivers. The high rate of straying in spawning adults is considered important for establishing and maintaining this species, which is highly adapted to life in the Lake Biwa water system where environmental disturbances often occur.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Shiga Prefecture Samegai Trout Farm and Mr. Makoto Kobayashi of the Shiga Prefecture Federation of Fishermen’s Co-operative Association for supplying the specimens and providing other valuable information. We also thank Dr. Yutaka Kurita for critical and helpful comments on earlier drafts of this manuscript. This study was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Nos. 21380122, 24380105, and 15H04543 to TO) from the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, Japan, by part of the Collaborative Research Project of the Lake Biwa Museum fund (Kyo 11 - 05), and by part of the CREST program of the Japan Science and Technology Agency.

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  1. Yosuke Amano

    Present address: Fukushima Prefectural Fisheries Experimental Station, 13-2 Matsushita, Shimokajiro, Onahama, Iwaki, Fukushima, 971-0316, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8564, Japan

    Yosuke Amano, Kotaro Shirai, Kodai Yamane, Tatsuya Kawakami, Kazuki Yokouchi & Tsuguo Otake

  2. Lake Biwa Museum, 1091 Oroshimo-cho, Kusatsu, Shiga, 525-0001, Japan

    Masayuki Kuwahara

  3. Institute for Research on Earth Evolution (IFREE), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), 2-15 Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, 237-0061, Japan

    Toshiro Takahashi

  4. Project Team for Development of New-generation Research Protocol for Submarine Resources, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), 2-15 Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka, Kanagawa, 237-0061, Japan

    Hiroshi Amakawa

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  1. Yosuke Amano
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Correspondence to Yosuke Amano.

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Amano, Y., Kuwahara, M., Takahashi, T. et al. Low-fidelity homing behaviour of Biwa salmon Oncorhynchus sp. landlocked in Lake Biwa as inferred from otolith elemental and Sr isotopic compositions. Fish Sci 84, 799–813 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-018-1220-7

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