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Interactive Effects Of Pre- And Post-Natal Stressors On Chinook Salmon Performance And Fitness, Pauline Marian Capelle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Assessing the intergenerational effects of stress is an important factor in determining how populations will respond to changing environments. Stressful maternal environments often lead to perceived negative effects on offspring phenotype (e.g., small size, slow growth, high fearfulness/anxiety), yet these changes may better equip offspring for stressful conditions (i.e., environmental matching), showing that intergenerational effects have the potential to dampen negative effects of environmental stressors. This thesis aims to test this theory by manipulating a maternal signal of stress and measuring offspring phenotype and performance in multiple environments. I treated Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) eggs with cortisol (low dose (LD), …