The Impact of Road Salt on Pacific Salmon Success

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Pacific salmon populations are in precipitous decline, and degradation of spawning habitat by contaminants has been identified as a significant cause. Road salt use in Canada is increasing at about 2.5% per year, and is very poorly regulated. Salt toxicity both to salmon early life stages and their food supply of benthic invertebrates may be a significant factor, especially in the very soft waters of the Pacific West Coast. The urbanized area of the Vancouver Lower Mainland contains many salmon spawning streams, and we have recently measured winter salt pulses that exceed water quality guidelines by 7- to 28-fold. The present project will address this issue, both scientifically and socio-politically, and is powered by Citizen Science - 13 local Streamkeeper organizations are donating extensive stream-monitoring effort (to establish the extent of the problem) and outreach activities (to increase public awareness). Additionally, there is significant in-kind donation of network co-ordination and data management expertise by the Pacific Salmon Enterprise Centre of DFO. We have no private-sector support. We will: (1) establish a network of continuous year-round conductivity loggers to monitor salt pulses and chronic background levels in 30+ local spawning streams; (2) monitor the abundance of fish and benthic invertebrates in both impacted and non-impacted streams; (3) perform experimental lab studies on coho and chum salmon hatching, development, and physiology of the effects of winter/spring salt pulses of different types and temperatures, as well as chronically elevated salt levels. In-stream development assays will also be performed. The goal is to detect possible pathological effects and to understand their mechanisms; (4) perform parallel experimental studies on key benthic invertebrates to understand impacts on the forage base; and (5) mount a public outreach program to educate the general public, local governments, and regulatory authorities on the extent of the road salt pollution problem and its impacts on salmon success. This project involves faculty from 3 local universities and will train 2 PhD, 2 MSc, 3 Masters of Env. Toxicol., 5 Masters of Env. Restoration, and 3 undergrads in state-of-the art ecotoxicology and environmental physiology.