Pacific salmon transport large amounts of marine nutrients to freshwater and forest ecosystems when they migrate from the ocean, spawn, and die.
Marine nutrient subsidies from salmon have been traced into riparian forest trees using stable isotopes of nitrogen, but few studies consider how soils affect nitrogen isotope values and thus the final signature recorded in trees. Scientists from USGS and the University of Washington used a 20-year salmon manipulation experiment in Bristol Bay, Alaska to evaluate how marine nitrogen isotopes in salmon make their way through soils and into riparian forest trees. They found that nitrogen isotopes in soil often greatly exceeded salmon isotope values, indicating a previous methodological issue, which has probably caused overestimates in most prior studies of how salmon fertilize streamside trees. The study provides a basis for more careful analyses of mitigation programs that target salmon nutrient enhancement in areas where populations have declined.
Feddern, M.L., Holtgrieve, G.W., Perakis, S.S., Hart, J., Ro, H., Quinn, T.P., 2019, Riparian soil nitrogen cycling and isotopic enrichment in response to a long-term salmon carcass manipulation experiment: Ecosphere, v. 10, no. 11, p. e02958, https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2958
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Terrestrial Ecosystems Laboratory (FRESC)
Riparian Forests
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Terrestrial Ecosystems Laboratory (FRESC)
Research in our laboratory centers on the ecology and biogeochemistry of forest ecosystems, as well as grassland and riparian systems. We examine how factors such as natural and human disturbances, climate and climate change, succession, and soil fertility shape ecosystem biogeochemistry - and the reciprocal effect of biogeochemical cycles on these and other factors.Riparian Forests
Riparian vegetation is an often ignored yet critical source of nutrition for riparian food webs. Many food webs are supported at their base by the breakdown and incorporation of leaf litter into fungi, insects, etc. In headwater streams, riparian leaf litter inputs provide essential subsidies that fuel in-stream productivity, in addition to subsidizing food chains of terrestrial riparian habitats... - Publications
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