Oct 19 Evening at Egan Friday Fall Lecture Series, “What can the shifty fishes of Auke Creek tell us about adaptation to warming streams in Southeast Alaska?”

In collaboration with scientists from NOAA, UAS, UAF, and his students, Marine Biology faculty David Tallmon studies how sculpin and salmon in Auke Creek, Alaska, are adjusting and adapting to a changing environment. At the next Evening at Egan, Dr. Tallmon will describe projected future changes of stream conditions in Southeast Alaska.

Juneau, Alaska

Date of Press Release: October 15, 2012

 Friday, October 19, 7 p.m. Egan Lecture Hall,
David Tallmon, Associate Professor of Biology, University of Alaska Southeast

Physical conditions in Auke Creek and many streams throughout Southeast Alaska are changing.  In collaboration with scientists from NOAA, UAS, UAF, and his students, Marine Biology faculty David Tallmon studies how sculpin and salmon in Auke Creek, Alaska, are adjusting and adapting to a changing environment.  At the next Evening at Egan, Dr. Tallmon will describe projected future changes of stream conditions in Southeast Alaska.
“We've found evidence that most of the juvenile and adult salmon runs are earlier than they used to be,” said Tallmon.  “Analyses conducted at the Auke Creek weir reveal that Auke Creek is warming and most of its salmon migrations or “runs” are occurring earlier than in the past.”

Other important results of these analyses are that most of these runs are occurring over a smaller window of time, and that, collectively, spawning salmon can be counted migrating past the weir about only 55 days a year.  In the 1970s, salmon migrated past the weir on the way to spawn over a longer 79 day period.   Their availability has decreased for humans and non-humans, who live along Auke Creek’s banks and look forward to an annual salmon harvest.

However, there is good news.  Despite these shifts in migration timing and the shrinking window over which they can be counted at the weir, Auke Creek salmon have not decreased in abundance.  They remain just as abundant as they were decades ago.  In other words, they appear to be resilient to the environmental changes that have occurred in the last few decades.  But will they remain resilient in the future?

All Evening at Egan lectures are simulcasted live.