Contact Information
Fisheries Academic Program213 Lena Point
17101 Pt. Lena Loop Rd.
University of Alaska Fairbanks
Juneau, AK 99801
Phone: (907) 796-5460
Fax: (907) 796-5447
tdhoem@alaska.edu
Tammy HoemPh.D. Student
Thesis Title
The influence of estuarine and early marine habitats on expression of life history characteristics of coho salmon smolts in south-central Alaska.
Career Goals
I would like to continue to explore the influence of climate and habitat variability on anadromous species in the estuarine and marine environments as a post-doctoral researcher.
Research Overview
Alaska’s estuaries provide a great diversity of habitats and play an important role in the development of many marine and anadromous fishes. Although generally recognized as some of the most productive ecosystems, the vast diversity of estuarine habitats and the developmental responses that they illicit from animals rearing in these environments are not well understood. Widely differing conditions between estuarine rearing environments could result in fine-scale variability in the life history, physiological, and behavioral characteristics of fishes. This gives rise to the potential for expression of local adaptations and may give insight to potential differences in the relative vulnerability of adjacent populations to human intervention, climate shifts, and variability in the marine environment. In this project, we propose to investigate the life history characteristics of coho salmon smolts and their use of habitat during estuary and early marine rearing in the Anchor and Fox rivers in south-central Alaska. We will compare fish size, age, and condition with timing and characteristics of movement and duration of occupancy in these two adjacent, but physically different estuarine and marine habitats. This study will allow us to investigate potential for fine-scale adaptive variability in life history characteristics resulting from differing rearing environments, potentially providing insight to long-term population resilience of coho salmon populations in a human-impacted environment.