Institute of Marine Science, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK 99775;
Private address, Auke Bay, AK 99821.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 May 29;115(22):E5038-E5045. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1720577115. Epub 2018 May 14.
Pink salmon () in the North Pacific Ocean have flourished since the 1970s, with growth in wild populations augmented by rising hatchery production. As their abundance has grown, so too has evidence that they are having important effects on other species and on ocean ecosystems. In alternating years of high abundance, they can initiate pelagic trophic cascades in the northern North Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea and depress the availability of common prey resources of other species of salmon, resident seabirds, and other pelagic species. We now propose that the geographic scale of ecosystem disservices of pink salmon is far greater due to a 15,000-kilometer transhemispheric teleconnection in a Pacific Ocean macrosystem maintained by short-tailed shearwaters (), seabirds that migrate annually between their nesting grounds in the South Pacific Ocean and wintering grounds in the North Pacific Ocean. Over this century, the frequency and magnitude of mass mortalities of shearwaters as they arrive in Australia, and their abundance and productivity, have been related to the abundance of pink salmon. This has influenced human social, economic, and cultural traditions there, and has the potential to alter the role shearwaters play in insular terrestrial ecology. We can view the unique biennial pulses of pink salmon as a large, replicated, natural experiment that offers basin-scale opportunities to better learn how these ecosystems function. By exploring trophic interaction chains driven by pink salmon, we may achieve a deeper conservation conscientiousness for these northern open oceans.
太平洋北部的粉鲑（）自 20 世纪 70 年代以来蓬勃发展，其野生种群数量的增长得益于孵化场产量的增加。随着它们的数量增加，越来越多的证据表明，它们对其他物种和海洋生态系统产生了重要影响。在高丰度的交替年份，它们可以在北太平洋和白令海引发浮游食物链级联反应，并降低其他鲑鱼、留鸟和其他浮游物种的常见猎物资源的可利用性。我们现在提出，由于短尾鹱（）在一个由太平洋大系统维持的 15000 公里跨半球遥相关，粉鲑的生态系统不良服务的地理范围要大得多，这些短尾鹱每年在南太平洋的筑巢地和北太平洋的越冬地之间迁徙。在本世纪，短尾鹱抵达澳大利亚时大规模死亡的频率和规模，以及它们的数量和生产力，都与粉鲑的数量有关。这影响了那里的人类社会、经济和文化传统，并有潜力改变短尾鹱在岛屿陆地生态系统中所扮演的角色。我们可以将粉鲑独特的两年一次的脉冲视为一个大型的、可复制的自然实验，为更好地了解这些生态系统的功能提供了流域规模的机会。通过探索由粉鲑驱动的营养相互作用链，我们可能会对这些北方开阔海域产生更深入的保护意识。
