Abstract
The Green Sturgeon is a long-lived anadromous fish known to spawn in only three locations. Southern Distinct Population Segment (DPS) Green Sturgeon spawn only in the Sacramento drainage, while the Northern DPS spawns in the Klamath and Rogue rivers. In 2011, a young of year (YOY) Green Sturgeon was captured in the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam, providing preliminary evidence of a fourth spawning location. In 2017, four additional Green Sturgeon YOY of similar size were captured in the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam. Genetic analysis of all YOY samples indicates that they belong to the Northern DPS, confirming that the Northern DPS actually spawns in at least three locations. The detection of Green Sturgeon spawning in the Columbia River only in years with relatively high spring flow (2011, 2017), combined with confirmed correlations between flow and spawning for other White and Green Sturgeon populations, suggests that appropriate spawning conditions may only exist above a specific flow threshold. The Columbia River has the potential to play an important role in Green Sturgeon climate change adaptation due to its location at the northernmost end of the species’ reproductive range. We recommend future research to better quantify Green Sturgeon recruitment magnitude, frequency and dynamics in the Columbia River.
References
Allen PJ, McEnroe M, Forostyan T, Cole S, Nicholl MM, Hodge B, Cech JJ Jr (2011) Ontogeny of salinity tolerance and evidence for seawater-entry preparation in juvenile green sturgeon, Acipenser medirostris. J Comp Physiol B Biochem Syst Environ Physiol 181:1045–1062. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00360-011-0592-0
Anderson EC, Ng TC, Crandall ED, Garza JC (2017) Genetic and individual assignment of tetraploid green sturgeon with SNP assay data. Conserv Genet 18:1119–1130. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-017-0963-5
Benson RL, Turo S, McCovey BW (2007) Migration and movement patterns of green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris) in the Klamath and trinity rivers, California, USA. Environ Biol Fish 79:269–279. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-006-9023-6
Brandl S, Schumer G, Schreier BM et al (2015) Ten real-time PCR assays for detection of fish predation at the community level in the San Francisco Estuary-Delta. Mol Ecol Resour 15:278–284. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.12305
Colway C, Stevenson DE (2007) Confirmed records of two green sturgeon from the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. Northwest Nat 88:188–192
Counihan TD, Chapman CG (2018) Relating river discharge and water temperature to the recruitment of age-0 White Sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus Richardson, 1836) in the Columbia River using over-dispersed catch data. J Appl Ichthyol 34:279–289. https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.13570
Duchesne P, Bernatchez L (2002) AFLPOP: a computer program for simulated and real population allocation, based on AFLP data. Mol Ecol Notes 2:380–383. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1471-8278
Earl DA, vonHoldt BM (2011) Structure Harvester: a website and program for visualizing structure output and implementing the Evanno method. Conserv Genet Resour 4:359–361. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12686-011-9548-7
Erickson DL, Webb MAH (2007) Spawning periodicity, spawning migration, and size at maturity of green sturgeon, Acipenser medirostris, in the Rogue River, Oregon. Environ Biol Fish 79:255–268. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-006-9072-x
Evanno G, Regnaut S, Goudet J (2005) Detecting the number of clusters of individuals using the software STRUCTURE: a simulation study. Mol Ecol 14:2611–2620. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-294X.2005.02553.x
Falush D, Stephens M, Pritchard JK (2007) Inference of population structure using multilocus genotype data: dominant markers and null alleles. Mol Ecol Notes 7:574–578. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-8286.2007.01758.x
Farr R (2017) Population characteristics of sturgeon in Oregon (project F-178-R): sampling plan for Age-0 white sturgeon indexing in the lower Columbia River. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Clackamas, OR, 42 pp
Farr R, Kern J (2005) Green sturgeon population characteristics in Oregon. Final progress report. Sport fish restoration project F-178-R, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Portland, OR. 73 pp
Goto D, Hamel MJ, Hammen JJ et al (2015) Spatiotemporal variation in flow-dependent recruitment of long-lived riverine fish: model development and evaluation. Ecol Model 296:79–92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2014.10.026
Heublein JC, Kelly JT, Crocker CE, Klimley AP, Lindley ST (2009) Migration of green sturgeon, Acipenser medirostris, in the Sacramento River. Environ Biol Fish 84:245–258. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-008-9432-9
Hildebrand LR, Schreier AD, Lepla K et al (2016) Status of white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus Richardson, 1863) throughout the species range, threats to survival, and prognosis for the future. J Appl Ichthyol 32:261–312. https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.13243
Hubisz MJ, Falush D, Stephens M, Pritchard JK (2009) Inferring weak population structure with the assistance of sample group information. Mol Ecol Resour 9:1322–1332. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-0998.2009.02591.x
Israel JA, Cordes JF, Blumberg MA, May B (2004) Geographic patterns of genetic differentiation among collections of green sturgeon. North Am J Fish Manag 24:922–931
Israel JA, Bando KJ, Anderson EC, May B (2009) Polyploid microsatellite data reveal stock complexity among estuarine north American green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris). Can J Fish Aquat Sci 66:1491–1504. https://doi.org/10.1139/F09-091
Jakobsson M, Rosenberg NA (2007) CLUMPP: a cluster matching and permutation program for dealing with label switching and multimodality in analysis of population structure. Bioinformatics 23:1801–1806. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btm233
Kopelman NM, Mayzel J, Jakobsson M, Rosenberg NA, Mayrose I (2015) Clumpak: a program for identifying clustering modes and packaging population structure inferences across K. Mol Ecol Resour 15:1179–1191. https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.12387
Moser ML, Israel JA, Neuman M et al (2016) Biology and life history of green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris ayres, 1854): state of the science. J Appl Ichthyol 32:67–86. https://doi.org/10.1111/jai.13238
Moyle PB (2002) Inland fishes of California. University of California Press, Berkeley
Musick JA, Harbin MM, Berkeley SA et al (2000) Marine , estuarine , and diadromous fish stocks at risk of extinction in North America (Exclusive of Pacific Salmonids). Fisheries 25:6–30. https://doi.org/10.1577/1548-8446(2000)025<0006
Nilo P, Dumont P, Fortin R (1997) Climatic and hydrological determinants of year-class strength of st. Lawrence river lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens). Can J Fish Aquat Sci 54:774–780. https://doi.org/10.1139/f96-330
NOAA (2006) Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants: threatened status for southern distinct population segment of North American green sturgeon
Poytress WR, Gruber JJ, Trachtenbarg DA, Van Eenennaam J (2009) 2008 upper Sacramento River green sturgeon spawning habitat and larval migration surveys. Annual Report of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to US Bureau of Reclamation, Red Bluff, CA
Pritchard JK, Stephens M, Donnelly P (2000) Inference of population structure using multilocus genotype data. Genetics 155:945–959
Rodzen JA, Famula TR, May B (2004) Estimation of parentage and relatedness in the polyploid white sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) using a dominant marker approach for duplicated microsatellite loci. Aquaculture 232:165–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0044-8486(03)00450-2
Rosales-Casián JA, Almeda-Jáuregui C (2009) Unusual occurrence of a green sturgeon, Acipenser medirostris, at El Socorro, Baja California, Mexico. CalCOFI Rep 50:169–171
Schreier A, Langness OP, Israel JA, Van Dyke E (2016) Further investigation of green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris) distinct population segment composition in non-natal estuaries and preliminary evidence of Columbia River spawning. Environ Biol Fish 99:1021–1032. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-016-0538-1
Seesholtz AM, Manuel MJ, Van Eenennaam JP (2015) First documented spawning and associated habitat conditions for green sturgeon in the Feather River, California. Environ Biol Fish 98:905–912. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-014-0325-9
Stillwater Sciences WTNRD (2017) Status , distribution , and population of origin of green sturgeon in the Eel River : Results of 2014–2016 Studies Stillwater Sciences
Wilimovsky NJ (1964) Inshore fish fauna of the Aleutian archipelago. Proc Alaska Sci Conf 14:172–190
Acknowledgements
Thank you to Kevin Rybacki, Michael Lovejoy and Eric Anderson for field collection of the specimens. Thanks to Josh Israel for providing the Northern and Southern DPS genetic baselines. We’d also like to thank Alisha Goodbla and Grace Auringer for help with qPCR and microsatellite genotyping of YOY samples. The manuscript was improved with helpful comments from reviewers.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Schreier, A.D., Stevens, P. Further evidence for lower Columbia River green sturgeon spawning. Environ Biol Fish 103, 201–208 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-019-00945-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-019-00945-9