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Native and Invasive Macrophytes Differ in Their Effectiveness as Nurseries for Juvenile Endangered Salmon

  • Special Issue: Seagrasses Tribute to Susan Williams
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Abstract

For marine biogenic habitats, such as kelp and seagrass, declines and local extinction events cause concern because of the loss of ecosystem services they provide. Many of these habitats function as valuable nurseries, but this function may be eroded when invasive species alter the structure of the habitats. For anadromous salmonids along the northeast Pacific, there is little known about the nursery role of coastal habitats, which presents a challenge for scientists to fully understand their complex life histories necessary for informing resource managers in decision-making processes regarding habitat protection and restoration. To address these issues, we ran a 3-week experiment testing the nursery functions of seagrass (Zostera marina), the invasive alga Sargassum muticum, mixed seagrass-Sargassum, and bare sand plots on the growth, survival, and prey availability for endangered Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) smolts. We found mixed effects of each habitat type when compared with each other. Chinook salmon smolts grew less in seagrass when compared with the three other habitats (bare sand, Sargassum, mixed seagrass-Sargassum). However, fish survival was lower in Sargassum habitat compared with seagrass and bare sand. Prey availability was greatest in mixed seagrass-Sargassum habitat compared with bare sand, Sargassum, or seagrass. We used a principal components analysis (PCA) to develop a nursery index using the smolts’ growth rate, percent survival, prey availability, and density of prey in gut contents. The nursery index showed that mixed seagrass-Sargassum habitat had the most positive effects on nursery performance. These results suggest that invasive species can serve positive habitat functions, but only when in the presence of a habitat-forming native species. Our study supports the theory that habitat diversity leads to greater nursery function of coastal ecosystems.

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Acknowledgments

We are indebted to Susan Williams for being a nexus for this collaboration, but more importantly for her inspiration as a true pioneer in the field of estuarine and coastal science. We miss her adventurous spirit, leadership, and friendship and hope this manuscript honors her legacy. BBH was supported by the University of Washington—Friday Harbor Laboratories Postdoctoral Fellowship. BAA, NNN, and SGS were supported by the University of California Santa Cruz’s Doris Duke Conservation Scholars Program. All authors thank the staff of the Friday Harbor Labs for space and support for this work. Research was completed under permission from UW IACUC (PROTO201829–4238-13: Nursery Function of Coastal Puget Sound). We would like to thank the editors C. Simenstad and M.D. Taylor and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. We also thank our colleagues J.J. Orth and K. Heck for organizing this special issue for a woman we all admired.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA, USA

    Brent B. Hughes

  2. St. Olaf College, Department of Biology, Northfield, MN, USA

    Bashir A. Ali

  3. Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

    Nusrat J. Noor

  4. Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

    Soledad G. Soto

  5. Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington, Friday Harbor, WA, USA

    Megan N. Dethier

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Correspondence to Brent B. Hughes.

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Communicated by Matthew D. Taylor

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Hughes, B.B., Ali, B.A., Noor, N.J. et al. Native and Invasive Macrophytes Differ in Their Effectiveness as Nurseries for Juvenile Endangered Salmon. Estuaries and Coasts 44, 422–430 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-020-00845-7

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