salmonMSE utilizes an age-structured model in the projections. The
population is tracked by age and year but various dynamics correspond to
the salmon life stages as described below.
Variable definitions
Definition of variable names and the corresponding slots in
either the input (SOM) or output (SMSE) objects in salmonMSE.
Natural production
|
Natural origin spawners |
Natural production |
SMSE |
NOS |
|
Fry production by natural origin spawners, assumed to
be equal to egg production |
Natural production |
SMSE |
Fry_NOS |
|
Smolt production by natural origin spawners,
density-dependent |
Natural production |
SMSE |
Smolt_NOS |
|
Carrying capacity of smolts (Beverton-Holt
stock-recruit parameter) |
Natural production |
SOM, Bio |
capacity |
|
Spawning output that maximizes smolt production (Ricker
stock-recruit parameter) |
Natural production |
SOM, Bio |
Smax |
|
Productivity (maximum recruitment production rate),
units of recruit per spawner |
Natural production |
SOM, Bio |
kappa |
|
Unfished per capita egg production rate, units of egg
per smolt |
Natural production |
SOM, Bio |
phi |
|
Maturity at age, i.e., recruitment rate |
Natural production |
SOM, Bio |
p_mature |
|
Fecundity of spawners (eggs per female) |
Natural production |
SOM, Bio |
fec |
|
Proportion of female spawners in broodtake and
spawners |
Natural production |
SOM, Bio |
p_female |
|
Smolt-to-adult recruit survival |
Natural production |
- |
- |
|
Juvenile instantaneous natural mortality of juvenile
(either the freshwater or marine environment by age class) |
Natural production + Hatchery |
SOM, Bio |
Mjuv_NOS, Mjuv_HOS |
|
Survival of escapement to spawning grounds and
hatchery |
Natural production |
SOM, Bio |
s_enroute |
|
Natural origin return |
Natural production |
SMSE |
Return_NOS |
|
Proportion of effective hatchery origin spawners
(vs. NOS) |
Population dynamics |
SMSE |
pHOS_effective |
|
Proportion of hatchery origin spawners (vs. NOS) |
Population dynamics |
SMSE |
pHOS_census |
|
Proportion of wild spawners |
Population dynamics |
SMSE |
p_wild |
Habitat
|
Productivity for density-dependent survival: egg
incubation from spawning output |
Habitat |
SOM |
egg_prod |
|
Capacity for density-dependent survival: egg incubation
from spawning output |
Habitat |
SOM |
egg_capacity |
|
Productivity for density-dependent survival: egg to fry
life stage |
Habitat |
SOM |
fry_prod |
|
Capacity for density-dependent survival: egg to fry
life stage |
Habitat |
SOM |
fry_capacity |
|
Deviations in density-dependent survival: egg to fry
life stage |
Habitat |
SOM |
fry_sdev |
|
Productivity for density-dependent survival: fry to
smolt life stage |
Habitat |
SOM |
smolt_prod |
|
Capacity for density-dependent survival: fry to smolt
life stage |
Habitat |
SOM |
smolt_capacity |
|
Deviations in density-dependent survival: fry to smolt
life stage |
Habitat |
SOM |
smolt_sdev |
Hatchery
|
Hatchery origin spawners |
Hatchery |
SMSE |
HOS |
|
Effective number of HOS, spawning output discounted by
|
Hatchery |
SMSE |
HOSeff |
|
Fry production by hatchery origin spawners, assumed to
be equal to egg production |
Hatchery |
SMSE |
Fry_HOS |
|
Smolt production by hatchery origin spawners,
density-dependent |
Hatchery |
SMSE |
Smolt_HOS |
|
Fecundity of broodtake (eggs per female) |
Hatchery |
SOM |
fec_brood |
|
Juvenile instantaneous natural mortality of juvenile
(either the freshwater or marine environment by age class) |
Natural production + Hatchery |
SOM, Bio |
Mjuv_NOS, Mjuv_HOS |
|
Natural origin broodtake |
Hatchery |
SMSE |
NOB |
|
Hatchery origin broodtake |
Hatchery |
SMSE |
HOB |
|
External strays of hatchery origin fish |
Hatchery |
SOM |
stray_external |
|
Broodtake from strays |
Hatchery |
SMSE |
HOB_stray |
|
Survival of hatchery eggs to yearling life stage |
Hatchery |
SOM |
s_egg_smolt |
|
Survival of hatchery eggs to subyearling life
stage |
Hatchery |
SOM |
s_egg_subyearling |
|
Proportion of hatchery releases as yearling
(vs. subyearling) |
Hatchery |
Internal state variable |
- |
|
Survival of adult broodtake in hatchery |
Hatchery |
SOM |
s_prespawn |
|
Target number of hatchery releases as yearlings |
Hatchery |
SOM |
n_yearling |
|
Target number of hatchery releases as subyearlings |
Hatchery |
SOM |
n_subyearling |
|
Mark rate of hatchery fish |
Hatchery |
SOM |
m |
|
Maximum proportion of total escapement (after en-route
mortality) to use as broodtake |
Hatchery |
SOM |
pmax_esc |
|
Target proportion of the natural origin broodtake from
the escapement (after en-route mortality), i.e., NOB/NOS ratio |
Hatchery |
SOM |
ptarget_NOB |
|
Maximum proportion of the natural origin broodtake from
the escapement (after en-route mortality), i.e., NOB/NOS ratio |
Hatchery |
SOM |
pmax_NOB |
|
Realized proportion of the total broodtake of hatchery
origin (vs. natural origin) |
Hatchery |
SMSE |
pNOB |
|
Hachery origin return |
Hatchery |
SMSE |
Return_HOS |
|
Proportion of hatchery origin escapement to hatchery,
available for broodtake |
Hatchery |
SOM |
phatchery |
|
Proportion of hatchery origin escapement removed from
spawning grounds, not available for broodtake |
Hatchery |
SOM |
premove_HOS |
|
Reduced reproductive success of HOS (relative to
NOS) |
Hatchery |
SOM |
gamma |
|
Mean phenotypic value of cohort in natural and hatchery
environments |
Fitness |
Internal state variable and SOM |
zbar_start |
|
Optimal phenotypic value for natural and hatchery
environments |
Fitness |
SOM |
theta |
|
Variance of phenotypic traits in population |
Fitness |
SOM |
phenotype_variance |
|
Variance of fitness function |
Fitness |
SOM |
fitness_variance |
|
Heritability of phenotypic traits |
Fitness |
SOM |
heritability |
|
Population fitness in the natural and hatchery
environments |
Fitness |
SMSE |
fitness |
|
Relative fitness loss at the life stage i (egg, fry,
smolt) |
Fitness |
SOM |
rel_loss |
|
Proportionate natural influence |
Fitness |
SMSE |
PNI |
Harvest
|
Mark rate of hatchery fish (affects fishery retention
of hatchery fish relative to natural fish) |
Harvest |
SOM |
m |
|
Pre-terminal fishery harvest rate |
Harvest |
SOM |
u_preterminal |
|
Terminal fishery harvest rate |
Harvest |
SOM |
u_terminal |
|
Mortality from catch and release (proportion) |
Harvest |
SOM |
release_mort |
|
Relative vulnerability by age to the fishery |
Harvest |
SOM |
vulPT, vulT |
Natural production
First, we consider natural production in the absence of fitness
effects arising from hatchery production.
Spawning output
From the spawners (NOS and HOS) of age
in year
,
the corresponding spawning output (units of eggs) of the subsequent
generation is calculated as:
where
and the superscript denotes the parentage of the progeny.
Smolt production - no habitat modeling
If no habitat modeling is used, then fry production is assumed to be
equal to spawning output, i.e.,
and
.
Survival from egg to smolt life stage is density-dependent. With the
Beverton-Holt stock-recruit relationship, the age-1 smolt production
is
where
,
,
the unfished egg per smolt
,
with
as the maturity at age.
Smolt production can be predicted from total adult spawners by
setting
and
.
The density-independent component of the survival equation is
controlled by
and the density-dependent component of survival is controlled by
and scaled by the total number of fry in competition with subyearling
hatchery releases (see Hatchery
section).
If there is knife-edge maturity, i.e., all fish mature at the
terminal age, the equation simplifies to
,
with
as the marine survival (between 0-1).
With the Ricker stock-recruit relationship, smolt production is
where
and
,
is the egg production that maximizes smolt production.
Smolt production - habitat modeling
Egg to smolt production can also be modeled as a series of
density-dependent functions by life stage, following the approach of Jorgensen et
al. 2021. Three relationships are modeled.
The realized egg production
()
can be modified from the spawning output
()
due to incubation mortality. With a Beverton-Holt function:
where productivity
is the maximum survival as spawning output approaches zero and
is the asymptotic production.
Set the capacity to infinite to model density-independence. The
productivity parameter is then the survival to the next life stage.
Fry production is modeled as:
where
is a year-specific deviation in survival. They can be modeled as a
function of a proposed time series of environmental variables
,
for example,
or
.
Similarly, smolt production is modeled as:
Alternative scenarios with changes in productivity or capacity
parameters can be used to evaluate changes in life stage survival from
habitat improvement or mitigation measures as part of a management
strategy, or from climate regimes (low productivity vs. high
productivity, or low capacity vs. high capacity). An increase in
capacity can arise from restoration which increases the area of suitable
habitat. An increase in productivity can arise from improvement in
habitat, e.g., sediment quality.
Approaches such as HARP
and CEMPRA
can inform productivity and capacity parameters across these life stages
as quantitative relationships between habitat variables.
For all life stages, a hockey-stick formulation is also possible. For
example:
where
is the capacity apportioned to natural spawners based on relative
abundance.
Hatchery production
Hatchery production is controlled by several sets of variables
specified by the analyst, roughly following the AHA
approach.
The first consideration is to specify the target number of annual
releases of sub-yearlings
and yearlings
.
Yearlings are intended to represent hatchery releases that
immediately leave freshwater environment, while subyearlings are subject
to density-dependent survival in competition with natural production of
fry, e.g., they reside in freshwater environment for a period of time
before leaving.
Going backwards, the corresponding number of eggs needed to reach the
target number depends on the egg survival to those life stages in the
hatchery. The corresponding number of broodtake is calculated from
target egg production based on the brood fecundity and hatchery survival
of broodtake, which is non-selective with respect to age.
An additional consideration is the composition (natural vs. hatchery
origin) of in-river broodtake. To minimize genetic drift of the
population due to hatchery production, it is desirable to maintain a
high proportion of natural origin broodtake. This is controlled by
,
the desired proportion of natural broodtake relative to all broodtake
(any specified amount of available imported brood is considered
hatchery-origin for this purpose), but can be exceeded if there is
insufficient escapement of natural origin fish.
The ability to meet this target depends on the mark rate of hatchery
origin fish. Thus,
represents ratio of unmarked fish in the projection (imported brood is
considered marked for this calculation, strays are considered unmarked),
and the realized
is reduced by the mark rate.
Another consideration for broodtake dynamics is to maintain high
spawning of natural origin fish. This is controlled by
,
the maximum allowable proportion of the natural origin escapement to be
used as broodtake. This value is never exceeded.
To set up a segregated hatchery program, set
.
Otherwise, these equations set up an integerated hatchery.
The following equations then generate the annual broodtake and
hatchery production from the state variables given these
constraints.
Broodtake
The annual target egg production for the hatchery is calculated from
the target releases as
where
is the corresponding survival term from the egg life stage.
The broodtake is back-calculated from the target egg production. The
composition of natural and hatchery origin broodtake (NOB and HOB,
respectively) is dependent on the mark rate
and the target proportion of NOB
.
When the mark rate is 1, then the realized pNOB should be equal to
provided there is sufficient escapement. If the mark rate is less than
one, then
reflects the proportion of unmarked fish in the broodtake, some which
are hatchery origin. Thus, the realized pNOB is less than
.
If the mark rate is zero, then broodtake is non-selective with pNOB
equal to the proportion of natural origin escapement.
From the escapement in year
,
some proportion
is used as broodtake:
The proportion of the available hatchery fish for broodtake is also
reduced by
,
which can include fish swimming back to the hatchery or removed from
spawning grounds.
Additionally, some proportion of imported fish and strays may be used
as brood:
The availability of both natural and hatchery origin fish depends on
the escapement reduced by en-route mortality and can be capped by some
proportion denoted by the
parameter.
To exclusively use imported brood, set
.
The realized hatchery egg production is
where hatchery egg production is subject to a survival term
.
The proportion
is solved annually to satisfy the following conditions:
The target ratio
reflects the objective to maintain a high proportion of natural origin
fish in the broodtake, where its implementation is dependent on the mark
rate. The maximum removal rate of natural origin fish
or escapement
ensures that there is high abundance of natural origin spawners.
The total egg production in a given year can fail to reach the target
if there is insufficient unmarked escapement. In this case, the unmarked
take is set to the maximum removal rate
(),
and the remaining deficit in egg production is met using HOB (including
strays and imports).
Smolt releases
After the total hatchery egg production is calculated, the production
of yearlings and subyearlings is calculated to ensure the annual ratio
is equal to the target ratio. To do so, the parameter
is solved subject to the following conditions:
From the total broodtake, the smolt releases is calculated as
or
Pre-terminal fishery
Let
be the juvenile abundance in the population and
and
.
The superscript for the smolt variable corresponds to the parentage
while the superscript for
denotes the origin of the current cohort.
Harvest
in the pre-terminal
()
fishery, assuming no mark-selective fishing, is modeled as a seasonal
process. The kept catch
is
The instantaneous fishing mortality is solved so that the ratio of
the total catch and the total vulnerable abundance is equal to the
specified harvest rate:
Recruitment and maturity
The recruitment is calculated from the survival of juvenile fish
after pre-terminal harvest and maturation:
The juvenile abundance in the following year consists of fish that
did not mature and subsequently survived natural mortality
:
Natural mortality is specified by age class. Accordingly, this
mortality corresponds to either the freshwater or marine survival
depending on age class.
Terminal fishery
Assuming no mark-selective fishing, the retained catch of the
terminal
()
fishery is calculated from the harvest rate similarly as with the
pre-terminal fishery:
subject to
Escapement and spawners
The escapement consists of the survivors of the terminal fishery:
The abundance of natural origin spawners consists of the escapement
that survive migration to the spawning ground
()
and are not removed for brood:
The hatchery origin spawners is the escapement of local origin that
survive migration, do not return to the hatchery (either by swim-in
facilities or in-river collection), and are not removed from the
spawning ground (through proportion
and discounted by the mark rate, these animals are not available for
brood). Strays not used for brood are also included as hatchery
spawners.
Fitness effects on survival
Reproductive success of first generation hatchery fish has been
observed to be lower than their natural counterparts, and is accounted
for in the
parameter (see review in Withler
et al. 2018).
Through genetic and epigenetic factors, survival of hatchery
juveniles in the hatchery environment selects for fish with a phenotype
best adapted for that environment, and likewise for juveniles spawned in
the natural environment. Since these traits are heritable, the fitness
of the natural population can shift away from the optimum for the
natural environment towards that of the hatchery environment on an
evolutionary time scale, i.e., over a number of generations, when
hatchery fish are allowed to spawn.
As described in Ford 2002
and derived in Lande
1976, the fitness loss function
for an individual with phenotypic trait value
in a given environment is
where
is the optimum for that environment and
is the fitness variance.
If the phenotypic trait value
in the population is a random normal variable with mean
and variance
,
then the mean fitness of the population in generation
is
,
where
is the Gaussian probability density function. The solution is
proportional to
The mean phenotype
is calculated iteratively, where the change
from generation
to
is
where
is the heritability of
and
is the trait value after applying the fitness function, defined as:
Let
be a function that returns the mean trait value after selection in an
environment with optimum value
.
With a hatchery program, the mean trait value of the progeny in the
natural environment is a weighted average of the mean trait value in
natural and hatchery origin spawners, with selection in the natural
environment, i.e., with optimum trait value
:
where
.
Similarly, the mean trait value in the hatchery environment
is a weighted average of the mean trait value of the natural and
hatchery broodtake, with selection in the hatchery environment, i.e.,
with optimum trait value
:
where
.
The fitness variance
and phenotype variance
are identical in the two environments.
The mean fitness of generation
in the natural environment is then:
Mixed brood-year return
If a mixed-brood year return in year
across several ages
produces the smolt cohort in year
,
then the mean trait value in the progeny is calculated from a weighted
average by brood year and age class fecundity:
where
Effective proportions, i.e., weighting by age-class fecundity,
accounts for older age classes that are more fecund and more likely to
contribute to the production of next cohort.
Fitness loss
Fitness can reduce survival in the egg, fry, and immature life
stages.
If no habitat model is used, then the egg-fry survival is reduced by
the fitness loss function:
and the smolt production function is adjusted by loss in productivity
and capacity, with
and
adjusted accordingly as:
with
and
.
With the Ricker density-dependent survival, the beta parameter is
adjusted with
.
In the marine life stage, the increase in natural mortality is:
In the marine environment, age-specific natural survival is reduced
proportional to the fitness loss term and modeled as a cohort
effect.
Parameter
is the proportion of the fitness loss apportioned to life stage
(either egg, fry, or juvenile-marine), with
.
If habitat variables are modeled, then the egg and fry fitness losses
adjust the productivity and capacity of the corresponding life
stage:
PNI
PNI (proportionate natural influence) is an approximation of the rate
of gene flow from the hatchery to the natural environment, calculated
for the progeny in year
from the parental composition of year
:
Generally, a combination of minimizing hatchery releases, increasing
natural broodtake, and reducing the number hatchery origin spawners
maintains high PNI, i.e., low rate of gene flow from the hatchery to
natural environment.
If there is no natural origin broodtake, i.e., all brood is imported,
then PNI is calculated with equation 6 of Withler
et al. 2018:
Wild salmon
With single brood-year returns, the proportion of wild salmon,
natural origin spawners whose parents were also natural spawners, can be
calculated as
where
.
The first term is the proportion of natural spawners in the current
generation
.
The ratio comprising the second term discounts the proportion of the
current generation to include natural spawners whose parents were both
natural spawners. Assuming non-assortative mating, the three terms in
the denominator gives the composition of generation
whose parents who are both natural origin, mixed origin (one parent in
natural origin and the other is hatchery origin), and both hatchery
origin.
To generalize for mixed-brood year return, we calculate the
probability weighted across brood-years and age class fecundity:
where
The probability of finding a wild salmon in year
is the sum of probabilities of finding a wild salmon over all ages. For
each age
,
the first ratio is the probability of finding a natural spawner in year
.
The second ratio is the probability of mating success from two parental
natural spawners in year
using a Punnett square, assuming non-assortative mating across age and
origin. The summation across dummy age variable
calculates the total proportion of spawners in a given year.
Effective proportions, i.e., weighting by age-class fecundity, in the
parental composition accounts for older age classes that are more fecund
and more likely to contribute to the production of offspring.
Mark-selective fishing
If the mark rate
of hatchery fish is greater than zero, then mark-selective fishing is
implemented for both the pre-terminal and terminal fisheries. The mark
rate is a proxy for retention and the harvest rate
corresponds to the ratio of the kept catch and abundance. The
exploitation rate
is calculated from kept catch and dead releases. Exploitation rates
differ between hatchery and natural origin fish because there is no
retention of the latter.
Let the instantaneous fishing mortality for kept catch and released
catch be
where
is the proportion of released fish that die.
is an index of fishing effort, also referred to as the encounter rate by
the fishery, that links together
and
.
Intuitively, fishing effort can increase in a mark-selective fishery
compared to a non-selective fishery. For example, if the mark rate is 20
percent, then the fishing effort could be 500 percent higher than in a
non-selective fishery in order to attain the kept quota or bag limit.
Additional catch and release mortality then occurs for un-marked fish,
according to
.
In the pre-terminal
()
fishery,
is solved to satisfy the following equation for hatchery fish:
where the kept catch
is
.
The exploitation rate for natural origin fish is calculated from dead
discards. The exploitation rate for hatchery origin fish is calculated
from kept catch and dead discards:
Similarly, in the terminal fishery, the fishing effort satisfies the
equation
with the corresponding exploitation rates: