Potential for adaptation-by-time in sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka): the interactions of body size and in-stream reproductive life span with date of arrival and breeding location

Abstract

In salmonid fishes, the tendency to return to the natal site for breeding leads to reproductively isolated, locally adapted populations. In addition to this isolation-by-space, the heritability of breeding date can result in temporal segregation or isolation of breeding units. We examined the interaction between breeding location (spatial segregation) and arrival date (temporal segregation) for two fitness-related traits, reproductive life span and body size, of sockeye salmon ( Oncorhynchus nerka (Walbaum in Artedi, 1792)) in a small Alaskan stream. Analysis of data on tagged individuals over 9 years revealed that both males and females arriving early to the spawning grounds tended to spawn farther upstream than those arriving later, demonstrating the potential for segregation in time and space within the population. Both body length and reproductive life span also consistently varied with arrival date. Larger males and females entered the stream before smaller individuals, and individuals of both sexes that arrived early lived longer in the stream than those that arrived later. However, neither reproductive life span nor body size varied significantly with breeding location, indicating that the linkage between spatial and temporal structure in this breeding population is incomplete, and that segregation in time may currently be the dominant component of within-population structure.