An approach to understanding and managing anadromous salmon, steelhead, and sea-run cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus spp.) based on life history and evolutionary adaptive capacities of species and stocks is presented. Species, stocks, and local populations are viewed as systems that are continuously adapting to changing environmental conditions. They have the potential capacity to evolve in different ways in different environments through both life history and evolutionary adaptation. Habitat organization forms a template for genus, species, stock, and local population life history organization. Harvesting, habitat alteration resulting from land use practices and other human activities can alter the organization and adaptive capacities of species and stocks, and thus their long term persistence. The adaptive capacity of Oncorhynchus relative to its habitat and management environment is examined at the species, stock, and local population levels. Life history characteristics of representative stocks and local populations are analyzed using Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DECORANA). Fresh water migration distance and latitude are used to "explain" ordination patterns of Oncorhynchus species in the North Pacific Basin. Fresh water migration difficulty and mean annual runoff are used to interpret life history patterns of Columbia Basin chinook salmon stocks. Upstream migration difficulty and fall water temperatures are used to explain the ordination patterns of local populations of Willamette spring chinook salmon. Fishery management practices are examined in terms of their impacts on the organization and adaptive capacity of species, stocks, and local populations of Oncorhynchus. Management generalizations and guidelines derived from the life history theory are applied to management of Willamette spring chinook salmon. Maintaining habitat changes in the Willamette Basin within the historic range of fluctuations will tend to maximize co-organization of local populations. Management activities should provide relatively constant habitat and fishery conditions for natural selection processes to "organize" life history traits over a period of at least a few generations. Fisheries should selectively harvest local populations that show a high degree of realization of their adaptive capacity. By focusing instead on maximizing the co-organization of stocks, their habitat and fishery environments, and protecting the adaptive capacities of stocks, we will go a long way toward providing long-term sustainability for social communities dependent on fisheries. / Graduation date: 1994

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 290-299).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 310-318).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-85).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 181-205).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [281]-303).

The objectives of this study were to isolate and characterize the fungi associated with saprolegniasis of Pacific salmon and to determine the conditions which allow the infections to become initiated. The fungi isolated from the salmon were either sterile Saprolegnia species, or Saprolegnia species with affinities to the S. diclina-S. parasitica complex. Two morphologically and physiologically distinct strains were recognized in this latter group. Difficulties associated with the identification of these and other Saprolegnia isolates focussed attention on the inadequacy of existing species concepts and also showed that more attention should be directed toward the effect of nutritional and environmental factors on the morphology and growth of these fungi. A study of the DNA base compositions of eleven isolates belonging to the genus Saprolegnia sensu stricto showed that, contrary to expectations based on the literature, this character could not be used to distinguish groups at the infrageneric level, but the results did suggest that isolates included in the genus may have relatively homogeneous genomes. The existence of a satellite DNA was confirmed and was found in all isolates examined. This satellite DNA separates Saprolegnia species from all other Oomycetes which have been similarly examined. An argument is present favouring the rejection of the name Saprolegnia parasitica Coker as a nomen ambiguum and it is shown that all existing oogonium producing isolates included in this species can be legitimately considered to be Saprolegnia diclina Humphrey. Infection experiments, and observations on the histo- and gross pathology of saprolegniasis, when considered in the light of modern concepts concerning the nature of infectious diseases and existing knowledge of the physiology of Pacific salmon, suggest that there is a direct link between increased plasma corticosteroid levels in the fish and their susceptibility to saprolegniasis and other infections caused by normally non-pathogenic organisms. It is hypothesized that natural increases in the plasma corticosteroid levels of the salmon, either alone, or in conjunction with further stress-induced increases, create a situation where natural immunity and the ability to repair tissue damage are greatly impaired. This combination of factors allows an infection to be initiated and, once established, it becomes progressively worse, and ultimately terminal, at a rate which can be directly correlated with increasing temperature. / Science, Faculty of / Botany, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-281).

This thesis explores the role for social work in addressing government policies that threaten the sustainability of small coastal communities. The response of government and industry to the globalization of trade and resource degradation is at odds with the needs of people. Utilizing a case study methodology the development and implementation of the Pacific Salmon Revitalization Plan is explored. This department of fisheries plan to rationalize the fishery was highly contested on the grounds that it took jobs out of small coastal communities. It was accused of benefiting the large fishing corporations and the urban based fishing fleet, which had the capital to profit from the plan. Concentrated opposition from coastal communities, fishers, advocacy groups and academics was unsuccessful in changing the plan. The assumptions of modernism - expert knowledge, scientific rationality and orthodox economics - as well as distorted communications, were postulated to be behind this lack of success. A post modern analysis suggests that a successful challenge to the plan would have incorporated the local knowledge of fishers and coastal communities within a process of fair and equitable public discourse aimed at reaching intersubjectively mediated understanding. For social work this demonstrates the need to work conjointly with communities and affected groups to identify the modernist assumptions on which policy decisions are based and develop locally derived alternatives to these assumptions. And most importantly, that the focus of social change efforts be on demanding a process for discussion and decision-making that ensures that the concerns of effected individuals will be fairly addressed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [157]-174).