1 Pacific salmon embody these strong interactions between land and sea. After adult salmon return to native streams to spawn, their decomposing carcasses provide nutrients vital to the health of the terrestrial ecosystem, contributing directly to increased algal and plant growth, the abundance of animal life, and the survival of juvenile salmon themselves. As salmon runs have declined in the Pacific Northwest, this fertilization of the regional landscape has diminished.
Interactions are at work here as well.
Forest harvest, especially clearcutting, harms salmon directly by silting waters and raising stream temperatures. Native cultures and communities, tied intimately to the fish, suffer the loss of abundance in cultural as well as economic terms. A daunting task of data compilation, this profile offers the first synthesis completed at a bioregional scale. Island Press, 1997. 2 Gresh, T., J. Lichatowich, and P. Schoonmaker.