Photo credit: Matt Casselman
How do thermal tolerance and performance vary across populations and life stages of Pacific salmon?
Pacific salmon are an iconic group of fishes with immense cultural, economic, and ecological value. Salmon return to their natal streams to spawn with high fidelity, resulting in hundreds of geographically and genetically diverse populations. They encounter widely varying environmental challenges across their broad geographic range (California to Alaska and Russia to Japan), and across their life cycle (anadromous; both freshwater and seawater stages vs. resident forms). We take advantage of this impressive diversity to examine local adaptation in performance and thermal tolerance.
Selected Publications:
Eliason, E.J., T.D. Clark, M.J. Hague, L.M. Hanson, Z.S. Gallagher, K.M. Jeffries, M.K. Gale, D.A. Patterson, S.G. Hinch, A.P. Farrell. 2011. Differences in thermal tolerance among sockeye salmon populations. Science 332: 109-112
Dressler, T.L., K. Anlauf-Dunn, A. Chandler, E.J. Eliason. 2025. Beyond latitude: Thermal tolerance and vulnerability of a broadly distributed salmonid across a habitat temperature gradient. Conservation Physiology 13: coaf030
Mayer, N.B., S.G. Hinch, E.J. Eliason. 2024. Thermal tolerance in Pacific salmon: A systematic review of species, populations, life stages, and methodologies. Fish and Fisheries 25: 283-302
Oyinlola, M.A., M Khorsandi, N. Mayer, N. Butler, J.C. Van Wert, E.J. Eliason, R. Arsenault, C.J. Brauner, S.G. Hinch, A. St-Hilaire. 2024. Thermal exposure risk in different life stages of Chinook salmon in the Nechako River system, British Columbia. Climatic Change 177: 1-25
Van Wert, J.C., B. Hendriks, A. Ekström, D.A. Patterson, S.J. Cooke, S.G. Hinch, E.J. Eliason. 2023. Population variability in thermal performance of pre-spawning adult Chinook salmon. Conservation Physiology 11: coad022 doi: 10.1093/consphys/coad022
Dressler, T.L., V. Han Lee†, K. Klose, E.J. Eliason. 2023. Thermal tolerance and vulnerability to warming differ between populations of wild Oncorhynchus mykiss near the species’ southern range limit. Scientific Reports 13 (1), 14538
Anlauf-Dunn, K., K. Kraskura, E.J. Eliason. 2022. Intraspecific variability in thermal tolerance: A case study with coastal cutthroat trout. Conservation Physiology 10: coac029
Anttila, K., A.P. Farrell, D.A. Patterson, S.G. Hinch, E.J. Eliason. 2019. Cardiac SERCA activity in sockeye salmon populations: an adaptive response to migration conditions. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 76: 1-5
Eliason, E.J., M.K. Gale, C. Whitney, A. Lotto, S.G. Hinch. 2017. Intraspecific differences in endurance swim performance and cardiac size in sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) parr tested at three temperatures. Canadian Journal of Zoology 95: 425-432
Eliason, E.J., S.M. Wilson, A.P. Farrell, S.J. Cooke, S.G. Hinch. 2013. Low cardiac and aerobic scope in a coastal population of sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka with a short upriver migration. Journal of Fish Biology 82: 2104-2112
Why do adult female Pacific salmon have higher mortality rates than males?
Numerous field and lab-based studies have discovered that sexually mature, adult female Pacific salmon have higher mortality rates compared to males, particularly when the fish are exposed to secondary stressors (e.g. handling + high temperature). However, the underlying mechanism(s) driving the increased mortality in females remain a mystery. Our team is trying to figure out what is going on and how we can help.
Selected Publications:
Little, A.G., T.S. Prystay, E.A. Hardison, T. Dressler, K. Kraskura, S.J. Cooke, D.A. Patterson, S.G. Hinch, E.J. Eliason. 2023. Evaluating cardiac oxygen limitation as a mechanism for female-biased mortality in coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch). Canadian Journal of Zoology 101:163-171
Hinch, S.G., N.N. Bett, E.J. Eliason, A.P. Farrell, S.J. Cooke, D.A. Patterson. 2021. Exceptionally high mortality of adult female salmon: a large-scale emerging trend and a conservation concern. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences78: 639: 654
Kraskura, K., E.A. Hardison, A.G. Little, T. Dressler, T.S. Prystay, B. Hendricks, A.P. Farrell, S.J. Cooke, D.A. Patterson, S.G. Hinch, E.J. Eliason. 2021. Sex-specific differences in swimming, aerobic metabolism and recovery from exercise in adult coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) across ecologically relevant temperatures. Conservation Physiology 9(1): coab016; doi:10.1093/conphys/coab016
Eliason, E.J., M. Dick, D.A. Patterson, K.A. Robinson, J. Lotto, S.G. Hinch, S.J. Cooke. 2020. Sex-specific differences in physiological recovery and short-term behaviour following fisheries capture in adult sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka). Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 77: 1749-1757
Little, A.G., E. Hardison, K. Kraskura, T. Dressler, T. Prystay, B. Hendriks, J.N. Pruitt, A.P. Farrell, S.J. Cooke, D.A. Patterson, S.G. Hinch, E.J. Eliason. 2020. Reduced lactate dehydrogenase activity in the heart and suppressed sex hormone levels are associated with female-biased mortality during thermal stress in Pacific salmon. Journal of Experimental Biology 223:jeb214841
How does size influence an animal’s capacity to cope with environmental change?
Metabolism is well known to scale allometrically with body size, such that larger organisms have lower mass-specific metabolic rates compared to smaller organisms. Our team is examining how this phenomenon relates to environmental tolerance and performance in a variety of systems (Fishes, spiny lobsters, Pacific salmon, Atlantic salmon, surfperch).
Selected Publications:
Kraskura, K., E.A. Hardison, E.J. Eliason. 2023. Body size and temperature affect metabolic and cardiac thermal tolerance in fish. Scientific Reports 13 (1), 17900
Jerde, C.L., K. Kraskura, E.J. Eliason, S. Csik, A.C. Stier, M.L. Taper. 2019. Strong evidence for an intraspecific metabolic scaling coefficient near 0.89 in fish. Frontiers in Physiology 10: 1166
Lennox, R., E.J. Eliason, T. Havn, M.R. Johansen, E.B. Thorstad, S.J. Cooke, O. Diserud, F.G. Whoriskey, A.P. Farrell, I. Uglem. 2018. Bioenergetic consequences of warming rivers to adult Atlantic salmon Salmo salar during their spawning migration. Freshwater Ecology 63: 1381-1393
