An integrated laboratory and field approach was used to study the behaviour and ecology of Pacific salmon (genus Oncorhynchus) alevins in the gravel. The hypothesis tested was that these yolk sac fry move throughout the gravel prior to emergence, that this movement has both lateral and vertical components, and that changes in the physical or biological environment will alter certain parameters of subgravel behaviour. Eyed chum salmon (0. keta) eggs were buried in incubation channels at Robertson Creek, B. C. Eight experimental treatments were chosen, utilizing two gravel sizes, two burial depths and two planting densities. The fry were captured at emergence by means of specially designed traps that allowed determination of degree of lateral movement, pattern of emergence and survival to emergence. The fry were also sampled for condition (weight-length ratio) at the time of emergence. In the larger gravel, survival was greater, lateral movement was increased, and initial emergence was earlier. At the greater burial depth the emergence period was longer. At the greater burial density initial emergence was earlier. Condition at emergence was the same in all treatments. The behaviour of coho salmon (0. kisutch) alevins was examined in specially constructed aquaria, where light and flow conditions were as natural as possible. The same environmental factors were varied as in the field. In addition to a general description of alevin behaviour, detailed analyses were carried out on: vertical and lateral movement, orientation, spatial distribution, condition, survival and pattern of emergence. In the larger gravel vertical and lateral movements were increased, survival was higher, area utilization was greater and condition at emergence was poorer. At the greater burial depth lateral movement towards the outlet was increased and initial emergence was earlier. Vertical movement was decreased because more fry were trapped within the gravel. At the higher density the alevins moved farther towards the inlet. The mean area occupied per alevin was unchanged by density and suggests competition within the gravel. The orientation of the alevins is discussed in relation to light and current. The results indicate that larger gravel is better than smaller gravel for the incubation of Pacific salmon. Burial depth seems unimportant, but should be great enough to prevent predation. The question of optimum density requires further study. Emergence patterns may apparently be modified through environmental control. / Science, Faculty of / Zoology, Department of / Graduate

This thesis deals with important factors that affect the temporal organization of emergence and early survival of Baltic salmon (Salmo salar L.). The study population was obtained from the Norrfors hatchery (63°50'N,20°05'E), Umeälven (Ume river) in Northern Sweden. The main objectives of the thesis has been to study; a: the effect of female and egg characteristics on embryonic survival, b: the effect of egg size, temperature and photoperiod on the emergence pattern and c: the impact of early or late emergence on survival in relation to predation and limited territorial space. The main results are summarized as follows: (1) Fecundity and egg size increased with increasing weight of females. No effect of female size were found on egg colour. Longer impoundment and later stripping increase egg colour. Egg mortality was not correlated with egg colour. Stripping date was found to have the strongest effect on mortality. (2) Egg size had no effect on the timing of emergence but fry of different egg size emerged synchronously. Fry from large eggs left the gravel as heavier fry and with a larger proportion of yolk left compared to fry from small eggs. (3) The number of days and number of degree days from hatching to 50% emergence decreased exponentially with increasing temperature. Synchronization of emergence increased with increasing temperature. Fry emerged with more yolk at 12 °C compared to 6 °C. (4) Eggs kept in a LD 16:8 light regime hatched mainly during the light period, while eggs kept in constant darkness hatched continously over a 24 hour period. Alevins kept at different light regimes (light>4h) from hatching until emergence left the gravel during the dark period. Daylength had no effect on the annual onset of emergence. (5) In a laboratory stream channel, predator presence at emergence increased mortality especially in early emerging fry. If the predator was introduced after completed emergence high mortality was noted among late emerging fry. The presence of fish predators and a limited territorial space for fry seemed to make early and late emergence hazardous and to favour a "peak" emergence. In the presence of a predator the fry changed their behaviour by reducing their swimming activity. / digitalisering@umu.se

The global mean temperature is predicted to increase by up to 5 °C during this century. For fish, being ectotherms, temperature is one of the most important environmental factors, influencing them in a number of different ways, including effects on physiological traits, timing of life history events and behavior. Atlantic salmon has been shown to grow faster after being incubated at warmer temperatures. One possible explanation for this could be that the increased incubation temperature causes decreased metabolic rates. The aim of this project was to examine whether this is true. Atlantic salmon eggs were incubated in three different temperature regimes: natural temperature conditions, heated water and a mixed temperature treatment, where eggs were incubated in increased temperature until the beginning of January and after that subjected to natural temperature conditions. Ventilation rate, a proxy for metabolism, was measured for fish from each treatment group, as well as fish length and weight. The results revealed significantly lower ventilation rates of the fish from the heated temperature treatment, but not of the fish from the mixed temperature treatment. This suggests that an increased incubation temperature causes lowered rates of metabolism in Atlantic salmon, and that the change occurs later than early January. Because of differences in size and life stage between fish from the different groups however, the results are uncertain and call for further investigations. A lowered metabolic rate will affect the fish’s behavior. A further development might therefore be to study fish survival in the wild in relation to a fish’s metabolic rate. / Jordens medeltemperatur beräknas öka med upp till 5 °C det här århundradet. För fiskar, som är ektotermer, är temperatur en av de viktigaste abiotiska faktorerna och påverkar dem på en mängd olika sätt, bland annat genom förändring av fysiologiska attribut, tidpunkter för steg i livscykeln och beteende. Lax har visats växa snabbare efter att ha blivit inkuberade i varmare vattentemperatur. En möjlig förklaring till det kan vara att en förhöjd inkuberingstemperatur orsakar en lägre metabolism. Det här projektet syftade till att undersöka om så är fallet. Ägg från lax inkuberades i tre olika temperaturförhållanden: naturliga temperaturförhållanden, förhöjd temperatur och en blandad temperaturbehandling, där ägg inkuberades i förhöjd temperatur till början av januari, varefter de utsattes för naturliga temperaturförhållanden. Gälslagsfrekvens, som fungerar som en indikator för metabolism, mättes på fisk från varje behandlingsgrupp, samt fiskarnas längd och vikt. Resultaten visade signifikant lägre gälslagsfrekvenser hos fiskarna från behandlingen med förhöjd temperatur, men inte hos fiskarna från behandlingen med blandad temperatur. Detta indikerar att en förhöjd inkuberingstemperatur orsakar en lägre metabolism hos lax, och att förändringen sker senare än tidiga januari. På grund av skillnader i storlek och livsstadier hos fiskarna från de olika grupperna är resultaten dock osäkra, vilket gör att ytterligare studier behövs. En lägre ämnesomsättning påverkar fiskars beteende. En uppföljning kan därför vara att studera fiskars överlevnad i det vilda i relation till deras metabolism.

A plethora of naturally-produced steroid hormones, or artificial homologues of them, are being introduced into the aquatic and terrestrial environments each year. Two examples of these are the natural oestrogen 17-oestradiol (E2) and the oestrogen receptor antagonist, Bisphenol A (BPA), both of which target the ribonucleoprotein telomerase through upregulation of its telomerase reverse transcriptase component, TERT. The main objectives of this study were firstly to isolate and characterize the actual mRNA sequence for the telomerase catalytic subuninit, Tert, in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) (Walbaum, 1792) and European purple sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) (Lamarck, 1816), with the aim of developing qPCR assays for the amplification and quantification of Tert. Further objectives were to use these assays in controlled exposure studies to establish whether and to what extent the aforementioned chemicals regulate Tert transcription and by doing so further understand the mechanism of Telomerase gene expression and the extent to which environmental oestrogen can interfere. The initial step of sequence characterization and assay devlopment was successful in the case of rainbow trout where two possible splice variants of Tert mRNA are identified, omTertShort and omTertLong. Two qPCR assays were developed for the relative quantification of both of these splice variants in rainbow trout samples, the latter of these successfully amplifying its target in test samples. In order to demonstrate in vitro and in vivo modulation of telomerase activity and mRNA expression, early life-stages of rainbow trout and purple sea urchin, as well as rainbow trout hepatocytes, were exposed to a range of concentrations of E2 and BPA. Purple sea urchin embryos were exposed to 200, 20 and 2 ng E2/ml for 28 hours until they had reached the stage of pluteus larvaes. Rainbow trout embryos were exposed to 500, 20 and 0.1 ng E2/ml and 600 and 150 ng BPA/ml for 167 days from immediately after fertilization. Rainbow trout hepatocytes were exposed to 20 and 2 ng E2/ml for 48 hours. The results from this study show that telomerase activity as well as TERT mRNA expression can be significantly modulated by exposure to oestrogens and other oestrogenic chemicals. E2 concentrations as low as 20 ng/ml lead to an increase in telomerase activity early-life stages of purple sea urchin and upregulation in the transcription of Tert mRNA in unhatched rainbow trout embryos. BPA induced similar response (600 ng/ml) in hatched rainbow trout alevins larvae. Very high exposures to E2 (500 ng/ml) do however lead to downregulation of Tert mRNA in hatched alevins larvae. Differential regulatory response can be observed between different tissue types of 167 day old fry, with an upregulatory response observed at 0.1 ng E2/ml in liver and muscle tissues, but not in brain. Similarly, brain tissues were observed expressing significantly less mRNA than liver and muscle samples when exposed to BPA (150 ng/ml). It is evident that the previously observed link between environmental oestrogens and telomerase is also present in the two test species examined; purple sea urchin and rainbow trout.