Date of Award
2023
Publication Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.Sc.
Department
Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research
Supervisor
D.Heath
Keywords
Atlantic salmon, Lake Ontario, Salmo salar
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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.
Recommended Citation
Lulat, Nabeelah, "Distribution and Relative Abundance of Reintroduced Atlantic Salmon, Salmo salar, in Lake Ontario Tributaries Using Environmental DNA" (2023). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 8939.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/8939