Sockeye Salmon Case Study

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The increasing temperature in the Columbia and Snake River Basin will provide less of a habitat range for the cold water species, sockeye salmon. The reason being that if the salmon were to attempt to inhabit these warmer waters the individuals that are unable to physiologically acclimate to these new temperature conditions will die; thus decreasing the relative abundance of the sockeye salmon’s population in these areas. The decrease in the amount of sockeye salmon will in-turn affect the communities and interactions of organisms living in the Columbia and Snake River Basin. b. With an initial population of 500,000 sockeye salmon and only 272,000 making it to the spawning grounds. We are able to estimate that 184,960 of those that make it to the spawning ground were female (approximately 68%). If we assume that each of these females lays 500 eggs and that only 1% of the eggs make it to sexual maturity, we can estimate that in the year 2019 about 924,800 sockeye salmon will make it to their natal stream to spawn the next generation. Of the 924,800 sockeye salmon that make it to …show more content…

The loss of the krill herbivore would have the greatest effect on the economy. Without the krill, the sockeye salmon lose effectively their entire food supply. The sockeye salmon industry is worth $230 Billion in Alaska alone. If the sockeye salmon starve and the industry takes a huge financial hit. 8. Our model does show mainly the trophic interactions; however, the model could also be used to infer other types of competition interactions. For example, space is a resource and with this model we are able to estimate the relative abundances for each of our species and if we compare the amount of physical space that is needed to support these populations with the actual size of the Columbia and Snake River Basin’s we can get a rough idea of how much space is needed to support these organisms. Evaluating this interaction would be between all species competing for physical space to

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