"Distribution and Relative Abundance of Reintroduced Atlantic Salmon, S" by Nabeelah Lulat

Date of Award

2023

Publication Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.Sc.

Department

Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research

Keywords

Atlantic salmon, Lake Ontario, Salmo salar

Supervisor

D.Heath

Supervisor

C.Semeniuk

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

Plans to reintroduce Atlantic salmon in Lake Ontario tributaries consists of stocking hatchery-reared fish yearly which will help to achieve a self-sustaining population. The issue with reintroduction remains in understanding the distribution of fishes after stocking. Environmental DNA (eDNA) provides a sensitive approach for monitoring that can offer inferences into fish distribution. I determined the distribution of stocked Atlantic salmon downstream from stocking sites using qRT-PCR and metabarcoding. I found that Atlantic salmon eDNA detection was more sensitive using qRT-PCR (51%) versus metabarcoding HTS (18.3%). However, metabarcoding provided data on fish community assemblages, which can help to monitor ecological interactions. I also found that eDNA and microsatellite markers genotyped and assigned an estimate number of individuals to 68.3% of the positive Atlantic salmon NGS data. This data indicates that eDNA and microsatellites can be used as a non-invasive method to quantify and monitor communities.

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