EAPSI: Characterization of dissolved free amino acids in hatchery system water - a salmon hatchery case study

几十年来，太平洋西北部的鲑鱼一直受到人们的追捧，原因有很多。由于成鱼每年返回其出生的河流产卵的区域下降，孵化和释放鲑鱼的饲养和释放已经被使用了几十年。不幸的是，孵化场养殖的鲑鱼已经显示出家流保真度的显著下降，并由于与野生种群相互作用的增加而造成了一系列生态问题。对孵化场鲑鱼缺乏家流保真度的一个建议解释是，对出生河水中化学线索的学习不足。这项研究的目的是确定出生河水的化学性质是否会通过简单的日常孵化操作而改变。这项研究将与日本北海道大学鲑鱼印记和归巢方面的溶解游离氨基酸(DFAA)专家上田宏博士合作进行。众所周知，鲑鱼在航行到它们出生的河流产卵时，利用嗅觉来识别出生河水的不同化学线索。然而，鲑鱼用来产生这种现象的独特的化学物质还没有确定。最近，DFAA作为鲑鱼用来导航和识别其出生河流的一组分子受到了相当大的关注。研究表明，鲑鱼具有根据其DFAA成分区分某些水源的能力。采用高效液相色谱法对河水中DFAA的含量进行分析。通过分析从孵化场环境中的某些位置收集的水，可以确定当前的孵化场操作是否会显著改变其来源河水的化学性质。该NSF EAPSI奖是与日本科学促进会合作资助的。

For many decades, salmon in the Pacific Northwest have been sought after for a multitude of reasons. Due to regional declines in adults returning to their natal rivers to spawn every year, the rearing and release of hatchery salmonids has been utilized for many decades. Unfortunately, hatchery raised salmon have shown a significant decrease in home stream fidelity and impose an assortment of ecological issues due to increased interaction with wild populations. One proposed explanation for the lack of home stream fidelity in hatchery salmonids is inadequate learning of chemical cues in natal river water. The purpose of this study is to determine if the chemical nature of natal river water is altered by simple, daily hatchery operations. This research will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Hiroshi Ueda, an expert in dissolved free amino acids (DFAA's) in salmonid imprinting and homing, at the Hokkaido University in Japan.It is well understood that salmon use olfaction to identify distinct chemical cues of natal river water when navigating to their natal rivers to spawn. However, the distinct set, or "bouquet" of chemicals that salmon use for this phenomenon has yet to be identified. Recently, considerable attention has been directed towards DFAA's as a set of molecules that salmon use to navigate and identify their natal rivers. Research has shown that salmonids possess the ability to distinguish between certain water sources based on their DFAA compositions. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) will be used to analyze the content of DFAA's in river water. By analyzing water collected from certain locations within a hatchery setting, it will be determine if current hatchery operations may significantly alter the chemical nature of their source river water. This NSF EAPSI award is funded in collaboration with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.