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Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Chiko, Salmon Most Resistant to Climate Change

Fraser River in British Columbia, Canada, is the region where the berhuninya more than 100 species of salmon. Many of the species was already extremely adjust to the environment. As a result, even small changes, such as water temperature, river flow, or changes in altitude to be disastrous for them. 
But not so for Chilko salmon. He proved more resilient than other salmon species to changes in environment and climate change. As observed, Chilko salmon, which is named after the region where they breed, able to adapt to these changes. 

For information, Fraser River, which has a length of about 2 thousand miles at this time the temperature has risen by 2 degrees as compared with conditions in the 1950s with the worst conditions occurred during the last 20 years. 


According to data from the University of British Columbia, millions of salmon migrating up the river to breed. But the numbers continued to decline since the 1990s. In addition, the migration cycle is also a cause of natural death in which 40 to 95 percent of fish were killed. 


"Climate change has upset the river environment. A number of salmon populations are not able to immediately adapt so that they can not survive, "said Erika Eliason, chairman of the team of researchers from the University of British Columbia, as quoted from Cosmosmagazine, 4 April 2011. 


From the study, when water temperature rises to a certain point, the ability of salmon to swim down. It is estimated, the increase in water temperature resulted in a decreased ability of the circulatory system of fish. Then, what causes the Chilko salmon able to survive? 


"We believe the ability of Chilko salmon migration conditions caused by those who are far more severe than other salmon," said Eliason. 


According to the researchers, each species of salmon migration routes still follow one of a number of migration routes that have a difference of distance, temperature, altitude, and water flow. Some species take the easy path, but the paths taken Chilko salmon is very difficult. 


Chilko salmon must swim a distance of more than 650 kilometers, up to a height of 1 kilometer, and passed through the area called Hell's Gate sebgai where the river rushing through the narrowed area until just seleber 35 meters. 


In addition to the route used to take extreme, Chilko also turned out to be less susceptible to changes in temperature and other environmental changes. Weaver does not like salmon which is very sensitive. 


From further research, it is known that the Chilko has the greatest heart and cardio-respiratory systems far more powerful than all the species of fish that the researchers observed. 


"Chilko able to swim at a higher temperature variations than other salmon in the river," said Eliason. "We concluded that this capability is because they are able to adapt to cope with the difficult path of their migration. For that reason we call it a super fish ", he said.


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