The Pacific salmon permeates our culture, history and economy. Indeed, its population fluctuations have made us acutely aware of the strength and fragility of Nature. While we recognize that the state of our forests, streams and coastal waters has a direct impact on Pacific salmon populations, we know less about the salmon’s impact on the natural environment. Should we care? Yes, we should, according to John Reynolds of Simon Fraser University (SFU), because we can’t save salmon without saving their ecosystems, and we can’t save their ecosystems without saving salmon.

Dr. Reynolds is a Professor in SFU’s Biological Sciences department and holds the Tom Buell BC Leadership Chair in Salmon Conservation. Born in southern Ontario, he has an enthusiasm for the natural world that developed in childhood and is still growing. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1991. He then spent two years at Oxford on an NSERC (Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) Postdoctoral Fellowship, after which he took a faculty position at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, northeast of London. The latter is known worldwide for its strengths in ecology, conservation and environmental science.

It was while he was at East Anglia with a Chair in Conservation Ecology that SFU enticed him back to Canada in 2005 with the newly established BC Leadership Chair in Salmon Conservation.  This Chair is funded in part by the Leading Edge Endowment Fund. Matching funds were provided through corporate donations, by friends and family of the late Tom Buell, the Pacific Salmon Foundation (www.psf.ca) and SFU. “It was a perfect fit, given my background and experience.” As it happens, Dr. Reynolds’ wife, Dr. Isabelle Côté, is an internationally-recognized expert in coral reef ecology and conservation. She, too, became a Professor in SFU’s Biological Sciences Department.

Dr. Reynolds is currently exploring field sites to get his salmon conservation research program into high gear this fall. Studies will examine various threats to salmon populations and ways of mitigating them. For example, a long-term study will examine the conservation implications of ecological interactions between salmon and their habitats.   “Salmon are the main source of critical nutrients in many Pacific Northwest streams,” he explains. “What many people don’t realize is that they also supply important nutrients to forests, with potential feedback to subsequent generations of salmon.”

Pacific salmon eggs hatch in the gravel of shallow rivers and streams, sometimes far inland from the ocean. The young fish swim downstream to estuaries, then to the open ocean where they grow to maturity. When it’s time to reproduce, they return to their original rivers, swim upstream, spawn and die. “Their carcasses become food for insects and other animals in both rivers and forests, and their nutrients are then taken up by plants, including trees” says Dr. Reynolds. “In other words, Pacific salmon are like conveyor belts that bring vital nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) from the ocean to the inland ecosystem. We know we can’t save the salmon if we don’t save their habitats. I would also argue that we can’t save the habitats if we don’t save the salmon.”

“My team will be working on both sides of the equation. We’ll be manipulating salmon carcasses to see how they affect vegetation growth rates and the abundance of stream insects, which are in turn eaten by the next generation of salmon. Conversely, we will also ask how physical features of streams and human impacts on watersheds affect salmon productivity, now and in the future under climate change.”

Dr. Reynolds brings to BC a fresh perspective on salmon management. “The traditional goal is to maximize the number of salmon caught without endangering the population. If we discover that salmon support critical aspects of the wider ecosystem, with feedback loops to the salmon themselves, this would provide incentive to move management toward a more holistic approach.” The models he and his colleagues develop over the next few years are sure to have a major impact on conservation -- not just locally but internationally.

To learn more about Dr. Reynolds, his team and their work, visit www.sfu.ca/biology/faculty/reynolds