Enhancement of Sockeye Salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) by Lake Fertilization in Great Central Lake: Summary Report

Abstract

Great Central Lake was treated with ca. 1001 of commercial grade fertilizer (ammonium nitrate and ammonium phosphate) annually from 1970 through 1973. Limnological parameters and sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) juveniles and adults were monitored from 1969 through 1976 to test the hypothesis that increasing the supply of inorganic nutrients in an ultraoligotrophic lake would increase production at succeeding trophic levels. Rates of change and linkages between different elements of the food chain leading to juvenile sockeye salmon were identified. During fertilized years mean summer primary production increased fivefold, zooplankton standing stock increased 9 times, the percentage survival from estimated potential egg deposition to juvenile sockeye increased 2.6 times, while mean stock size of adult sockeye increased from < 50 000 to > 360 000. Adult sockeye returning to an adjacent untreated lake also increased in abundance. The data for the 8-yr period support the initial hypothesis, but the dominant processes affecting production and interrelationships between different trophic levels in different years remain masked. Key words: food chain, limnology, sockeye salmon, primary production, zooplankton, eutrophication, lake fertilization, enhancement