Behavior and ecology of stream salmonids: individuals, populations, and communities

Moderators: Jack Piccolo and Nick Hughes
Emails: ftjjp1@uaf.edu and ffnfh@uaf.edu

Date: Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Time: 8:00 am to 3:20 pm
Location: Egan 7-8

Stream salmonids offer ecologists a broad scope for developing and testing hypotheses, and there is a rich history of ecological research upon which to build. Studies of stream salmonids promise to provide an understanding of the processes that link the behavior and ecology of individuals to the distribution and abundance of populations and the structure of communities. Because salmonids have such importance in commercial and recreational fisheries research on these topics also presents an opportunity to apply ecological theory to important management questions. The goal of this session is to bring together stream salmonid ecologists from around the globe, to share results and to allow us to assess the extent to which our research efforts are founded on, and contribute towards, basic ecological principles. What general principles have we learned, and what are the main research challenges that remain? What insights can be transferred across geographic regions, and to what extent have we developed a unified ecological theory of stream salmonid ecology? How can what we have learned help us to predict effects of natural or human-induced disturbance? To what extent can Alaskan ecologists, working in what is arguably one of the last strongholds of intact salmonid communities, learn from research on more disturbed systems - conversely, what can results from intact Alaskan salmonid communities tell us about restoration efforts elsewhere? Topics will include foraging, territoriality, migration, competition, and predation, and cover scales from individual fish through communities. The presentations and discussions will facilitate advancement of ecological theory and lend new insights to biologists interested in improving stream salmonid management.

Link to list of presentations in this symposium